24 PRELUDES and FUGUES, Op.87 DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Prelude & Fugue No.12 in G-Sharp Minor D Prelude: Andante [4.44] F Fugue: Allegro [3.25]

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2 CD 24 PRELUDES AND FUGUES, Op.87 DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) Prelude & Fugue No.12 in G-Sharp Minor d Prelude: Andante [4.44] f Fugue: Allegro [3.25]

DISC 1 Prelude & Fugue No.13 in F-Sharp Major Prelude & Fugue No.1 in C Major g Prelude: Moderato con moto [2.10] h Fugue: Adagio [5.16] 1 Prelude: Moderato [3.10] 2 Fugue: Moderato [4.07] Prelude & Fugue No.2 in A Minor Total timings: [72.05] 3 Prelude: Allegro [0.55] 4 Fugue: Allegretto [1.24]

Prelude & Fugue No.3 in G Major DISC 2 5 Prelude: Moderato non troppo [1.48] 6 Fugue: Allegro molto [1.48] Prelude & Fugue No.14 in E-Flat Minor Prelude & Fugue No.4 in E Minor 1 Prelude: Adagio [4.17] 2 Fugue: Allegro non troppo [2.46] 7 Prelude: Andante [2.54] 8 Fugue: Adagio [5.16]

Prelude & Fugue No.5 in D Major Prelude & Fugue No.15 in D-Flat Major 9 Prelude: Allegretto [2.02] 0 Fugue: Allegretto [1.56] 3 Prelude: Moderato non troppo [2.55] 4 Fugue: Allegretto [1.50]

Prelude & Fugue No.6 in B Minor Prelude & Fugue No.16 in B-Flat Minor q Prelude: Allegretto [1.48] w Fugue: Allegro poco moderato [4.02] 5 Prelude: Allegro molto [2.35] 6 Fugue: Andante [5.53] Prelude & Fugue No.7 in A Major e Prelude: Allegro poco moderato [1.12] r Fugue: Allegretto [2.38] Prelude & Fugue No.17 in A-Flat Major 7 Prelude: Allegretto [1.53] 8 Fugue: Allegretto [3.24] Prelude & Fugue No.8 in F-Sharp Minor t y Prelude: Allegretto [1.03] Fugue: Andante [5.45] Prelude & Fugue No.18 in F Minor Prelude & Fugue No.9 in E Major 9 Prelude: Moderato [2.17] 0 Fugue: Moderato con moto [3.31] u Prelude: Moderato non troppo [3.09] i Fugue: Allegro [1.37] Prelude & Fugue No.19 in E-Flat Major Prelude & Fugue No.10 in C-Sharp Minor q Prelude: Allegretto [1.52] w Fugue: Moderato con moto [2.52] o Prelude: Allegro [2.02] p Fugue: Moderato [4.37] Prelude & Fugue No.11 in B Major Prelude & Fugue No.20 in C Minor e r a Prelude: Allegro [1.13] s Fugue: Allegro [2.04] Prelude: Adagio [4.23] Fugue: Moderato [5.27] which he was working. Of all the great Soviet triumph, inspired by inner thoughts regarding Prelude & Fugue No.21 in B-Flat Major composers, Shostakovich is the most politicised the political system, or more specifically t Prelude: Allegro [1.11] y Fugue: Allegro non troppo [2.41] by historians, and yet he remains the most Shostakovich’s Svengali – the Soviet leader, questioning, at the same time as which he Joseph Stalin? Or is it a true triumph in Prelude & Fugue No.22 in G Minor almost never reveals the answers, and usually which the apparent ambiguity created by u Prelude: Moderato non troppo [2.07] i Fugue: Moderato [3.34] not even the questions. Shostakovich’s acerbic harmony is a red Prelude & Fugue No.23 in F Major herring? We will never know. In Shostakovich’s o Prelude: Adagio [4.08] p Fugue: Moderato con moto [3.31] These theoretical component characters could music we often sense that there is a hidden equally be interpreted as part conflict between message. The ultimate enigma of this great Prelude & Fugue No.24 in D Minor two opposing parts of the composer’s personality, composer is that we can never be sure of what a Prelude: Andante [4.21] s Fugue: Moderato [8.30] a satire upon himself, a lament for the the message is. beloved past and a genuine triumph of the Total timings: [75.58] spirit over adversity. That Shostakovich’s Influence of Bach most popular and most politically savvy work PETER DONOHOE PIANO – his Fifth Symphony – is ambiguous and Shostakovich admired Bach’s music enormously. www.signumrecords.com and enigmatic from first note to last is part This applied in particular to the latter’s of its greatness. toweringly great polyphonic writing - not only in his choral and organ works, but most Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes & Fugues, Op. 87 Union and the Democratic West often dragged Of all Shostakovich’s large scale works, relevantly in Das Wohltempierte Klavier (‘The Notes by Peter Donohoe the names of almost all major Iron Curtain that symphony is the closest in style to the Forty Eight Preludes and Fugues’). Along with artists, poets and composers into a discussion Twenty Four Preludes and Fugues for Piano so many late 19th and early 20th Century In the history of music, few composers have of the relative merits of the two opposing systems. Solo, written 14 years later. With the similarities Russian composers, Shostakovich held been as enigmatic as Shostakovich. As with in his approach to tonality and many other the traditional disciplines of counterpoint, every composer, it is inevitable that his music With hindsight, perhaps one could draw the aspects of his technique of composition comes polyphony and fugal writing essential to the art should display all the contradictions, the conclusion that the struggles Shostakovich a similar enigma. Is the apparent triumph of of composition.’ pain, the nostalgia, and the enigma of the had within himself have sometimes been the huge final fugue (which even shares its mind that created it – sometimes consciously; mistaken for an attempt on his part to reveal key of D minor with the Fifth Symphony and Shostakovich was inspired by the playing of often not. At the same time as this, the aspects of the unimaginably complex and resolves at the end in a massive statement Tatiana Nicolayeva, whom he heard – significantly ubiquitous propaganda war between the Soviet constantly developing political situation in of the major) a deliberate parody of a performing Bach – when he was a jury

- 4 - - 5 - member at the Leipzig Bach Competition in composers, and often produced extraordinary is, perhaps more than any of the set, reminiscent notable feature. Eventually the tessitura of the 1951. His admiration for Nicolayeva and his pastiches to order. Such works as The Gadfly of Bach – in particular, the mood of the two characters is reversed, they are desire to create these works for her was such and The Age of Gold demonstrate this, but this Prelude and Fugue that occupies exactly the superimposed, and the unison phrase becomes that he produced all twenty four Preludes and talent sometimes spilled over into his symphonic same position in Volume One of ‘The Forty-Eight’. a chorale The harmonies become increasingly Fugues in a few months. As he wrote them – works – e.g. the second movement of his dissonant, and the piece concludes with in the order in which they appear in the final Piano Concerto No.2. Throughout the Preludes Prelude and Fugue No.2 in A Minor an unresolved suspension played fortissimo, published version – she learned them. That he and Fugues, despite the immense variety and over which pounds the repeated note figure. was able to write so quickly was characteristic the occasional echo of Hindemith, Prokofiev The prelude is a swift toccata – a perpetuum of the composer, but it is also significant as it and of course Bach, there is no pastiche – mobile of whirling sixteenth notes that seems Out of this rising tension catapults the contributes to the feeling that one can take the no poking fun at styles other than his own. to be an accompaniment without a melody. energetic fugue – a wild piece in 6/8 time cycle as conceived as a single work. Everyone of these works is a gem, not only It is punctuated only at one point by a requiring brilliance of finger-work and clarity of originality that makes them all uniquely succession of long Es that threaten to become of texture. This virtuoso fugue in three voices is They were published in two halves, entitled Shostakovich, but also very deeply and a melody, but disappear almost as soon as one of the most demanding of the whole cycle, Volume One and Volume Two. Each volume is sincerely felt. they arrive. and is again reminiscent of Hindemith, with divisible into three groups of four, and each its angular subject and displaced accents. coupling of an adjacent major and minor key VOLUME ONE The fugue in three voices that follows, is a is logical – they easily form an interdependent grotesque dance, with a subject in two sections Prelude and Fugue No.4 in E Minor pair. It is thus satisfying to hear these works Prelude and Fugue No.1 in C Major – a baroque motif of two bars followed by a in groups of two adjacent ones, four (starting series of leaps of a seventh, leading to acerbic The sad prelude is built on drooping pairs of with nos. 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, or 21), twelve (either The opening of this sublime and diverse set harmonic clashes. The keyboard writing is very eighth notes, over which appears a sighing volume separately) or complete. It follows of pieces is already enigmatic. The prelude is demanding; the wide leaps and the clarity needed motif in long notes. The tonality is ambiguous that Shostakovich had in mind the context of based on a rhythmic figure consisting of for this piece demand great finger strength. in characteristic Shostakovich fashion, but E each one when writing its successor. It is of quarter note, dotted quarter note, eighth note minor is rarely far away. Near the end an course valid to play any of them singly, or to and two quarter notes in 3/4 time – reminiscent Prelude and Fugue No.3 in G Major unexpected rising scale takes us into A-flat simply form groups out of selected ones from of a sarabande. major for a moment of pure ecstasy and calm, after across the collection. The prelude is declamatory, at first alternating which the desolate E minor immediately returns. By comparison, the fugue – which is in four between a strong unison phrase in the lower The double fugue that follows is one of the Shostakovich was famously able to compose voices – is choral in style and beatific in mood. register and an almost plaintive single line in three in the cycle that gradually builds from a convincingly in the style of many other This is Shostakovich at his most spiritual, and the treble, with insistent repeated notes a quiet opening to a fortissimo final climax; the

- 6 - - 7 - majority of the slower fugues climax in the are exclusively and strikingly Shostakovichian Prelude and Fugue No.8 in F-Sharp Minor The bubbly fugue that follows completely middle, and return to their opening moods, – in particular the chorale melody that appears dispels any unease created by the prelude. This whilst most of the quicker ones remain a after a few lines – reminiscent of certain of One of the most significant of the cycle, the fugue is written in only two voices – the only static statement. his symphonies. The piece dies away enormously moving fugue is preceded by an one of the twenty four. Thus it has the sound unexpectedly, as if suddenly all its energy equally disturbing prelude. The style of both of a Baroque two-part invention, but with Prelude and Fugue No.5 in D Major has drained away, leaving the link to the fugue. prelude and fugue is arrestingly Jewish. Shostakovich’s unique twists of tonality, and a Although the prelude alone could be taken to very thorough working-out of the fugue. In the prelude the ambiguous atmosphere – The pianissimo opening of the fugue in four be a fairly light-hearted dance, in the context a mixture of simple rural charm and voices grows out of the end of the prelude. The of the fugue, it becomes a grotesque parody. Prelude and Fugue No.10 in C-Sharp Minor melancholy – is in sharp contrast to its mood of this beautiful fugue is dark and predecessor. A folk-style melody is supported foreboding, although there are some blissfully The fugue subject is extraordinary, consisting of One of the most obviously Bachian ideas forms by continuous arpeggiated chords, suggesting sunny moments and modulations to distant two characters – a bar-long downward-looking the basis of the prelude – the opening is a a lute or some other simple folk instrument, in tonalities on the way. phrase that is repeated, and returns in quote – almost certainly a conscious one – the treble. Meanwhile in the bass is an the eighth bar, and an upward leap of an from that of No.7 in E-flat major of Volume equally folky line, redolent of the sound of a cello. Prelude and Fugue No.7 in A Major augmented fourth that resolves onto the note One of ‘The Forty-Eight’. This passage one semitone below, giving the impression alternates with chorale-type passages played The fugue has a simple construction, whose A pastoral and naïve mood dominates the of a pained sigh. The enormous fugue in three in the lower registers. subject is in two parts – a repeated motif prelude. The music is in a lilting 12/8 time, and voices that is built upon this series of motifs whose main characteristic is two groups of in an unusually simple tonal style. However, becomes increasingly chromatic and tortured. The fugue is one of the most inspired. In four repeated notes, and then a series of occasional strange harmonic turns indicate three voices, it is in a moderate tempo, the downward-falling pairs of repeated notes. In something disturbing underneath. Prelude and Fugue No.9 in E Major atmosphere autumnal. Towards the end, over three voices, the work is one of the most a dominant pedal-point, the music becomes The fugue – in three voices – is based on a With the tragic mood of its predecessor still in particularly beautiful, rising to a lyrical climax lighthearted of the cycle, and has a mood of the air, the strikingly beautiful and questioning untarnished naïveté. remarkable subject consisting entirely of the which then falls away to the final phrase. notes of a broken chord of A major. There is prelude in E major is as unexpected as it is Prelude and Fugue No.6 in B Minor almost no chromaticism in this piece, and ambiguous. Notated largely on four staves, Prelude and Fugue No.11 in B Major it consists of a series of phrases alternating the harmonic variety comes from the – This prelude is Shostakovich typically clowning The powerful prelude in B minor is in the style sometimes surprising – juxtaposition of between the two extremes of the keyboard – of a Baroque French Overture, with its marcato mostly unharmonised and in unison two around with a folky melody, adding incongruous blocks of tonal harmony, creating an impression notes to an apparently predictable tune, double dotted rhythms. However, the harmonies of naïve wonderment. octaves apart.

- 8 - - 9 - rendering it unpredictable in the extreme. climax towards which the first section hurtles is works of the 20th Century. Marked Adagio, it Instead, the fugue is a grey, autumnal dance It is reminiscent of the finale of his Ninth characterised by harsh dissonance, fortissimo is choral in style – reminiscent of the singing in a moderately quick 3/4 time. Symphony. But whereas in the symphony octaves in the bass and a feeling of forward of Russian Orthodox Church choirs – and the tune is transmogrified into a grotesque movement. A pedal-point on the dominant is takes us through a remarkable tapestry of Prelude and Fugue No.15 in D-Flat Major and monstrous version of itself later in the reached and a pianissimo reworking of the fugue different tonalities. movement, here it disappears off at the end begins. A ghostly memory of the earlier aggression Perhaps the best known of these works for in a happy-go-lucky fashion. progresses, and the fugue gradually dies away. Prelude and Fugue No.14 in E-Flat Minor reasons of its technical demands as well as The final cadence is exquisitely beautiful, its memorability, the D-flat major poses a The happy mood is interrupted by the fugue, with dissonances gradually becoming more After the sublime beauty and serene calm particular enigma, stemming from the which is designed to be in the same tempo and more concordant and spaced further apart. of the F-sharp major, the intense sadness extraordinary contrast between prelude and and to emerge directly from the prelude. Volume One finishes, very unexpectedly, on a and overwhelming dark foreboding of this fugue; the former is unambiguously tonal, Amongst the most difficult to play of the pianississimo chord of G-sharp major. prelude comes as a shock. A fortissimo tremolo witty and superficially populist, and the latter whole cycle, it is a wild and whirling Hopak, begins the work. This dies down to what turns almost completely atonal (the very end being reminiscent of the finale of the Tenth Symphony, VOLUME TWO out to be hugely taxing on the performer, as the exception), aggressive, and uncompromising with its hysterical virtuosity. the tremolo is the first of many that underlie throughout. As so often with this composer, almost the whole piece, and thus continues for one senses a message – one that remains Prelude and Fugue No.12 in G-Sharp Minor Prelude and Fugue No.13 in F-Sharp Major an enormously long time. The melody line intangible, and yet difficult to deny. The magnificent prelude has the form of a The second volume of Shostakovich’s preludes eventually builds in dynamic, reaching a desperate Passacaglia throughout. At its climax, one is and fugues opens with a prelude whose main climax, before subsiding to a brief moment The prelude is uninhibitedly in the style of a reminded of one of Russia’s great Orthodox quality is contented naïveté. A expressive of uneasy calm. The music remains uneasy rustic folk dance. It is somewhat reminiscent Cathedrals. As the piece dies away, a ghostly sequence of arabesques in the treble, in varying and extremely sad, but now without the of the scherzo of the Fifth Symphony, whose pre-echo of the fugue’s main subject is and unpredictable time signatures, alternates incessant and oppressive tremolos that help to position in between one of Shostakovich’s most heard in the tenor, but nothing can prepare one with a series of calmly undulating chords. make this piece, along with Chopin’s Funeral significant movements (the first) and one of for the avalanche of composer-virtuosity into March Sonata, one of the most pessimistic profound lament (the third) gives it a context which one is suddenly hurled. The fugue is unique in this collection in that and menacing piano works ever penned. that makes it seem a snarlingly sarcastic parody. it is the only one written in five voices. The fugue in three voices is an extraordinary Although this renders the writing very The fugue is again in total contrast. Although The latter plunges the listener very suddenly tour de force. It has an angular subject, the unpianistic, and its execution extremely arduous, the sadness set up by the prelude does not into a world of unequal bar lengths: the fugue tempo is fast, and the time signature 5/4. The it is one of the most profoundly beautiful piano evaporate, its threatening nature has disappeared. subject itself consists of three bars of 3/4,

- 10 - - 11 - one of 4/4, one more of 3/4, and one of 5/4, The form of the prelude is indeed similar to that grinder. The ending is almost bluesy – strikingly always, the fugue, in three voices, passes which renders it inevitable that the whole of a set of variations written by Mozart. However, reminiscent of 1950s American jazz. through many other keys. Again there is a fugue is a nightmarish and exhausting the style of the music is very typical of suggestion of a conflict between minor and avalanche of unpredictable rhythms. It is at Shostakovich, and very Russian in the dark, The fugue, rather than being in contrast to the major during the final bars, created by the music the same time amusing, questioning, sarcastic choral style of its opening theme. There are three prelude, as characterises most of these works, hovering between F major and A-flat. The final and deliberately incongruous; perhaps it could variations upon this theme, after which a coda seems to continue the same mood. It has a resolution in F major is like an echo of the same be said that it is the opposite form of introduces new harmonies. The music slows rustic dance flavour to it, even though it is uneasy calm that concluded the prelude. incongruousness to that of the ending of and becomes even darker, with the last phrase in a 5/4 time signature throughout, and later Mozart’s Musical Joke, or Charles Ives’ Second intoned in the bottom octave of the piano, becomes extremely complex pianistically. It Prelude and Fugue No.19 in E-Flat Major Symphony, in which tonal music has a preparing the way for the mood of the fugue. has, probably coincidentally, a style suggestive deliberately wrong chord at the end – here of English country dance; the ghost of Percy The same suspended unease comes with the we have atonal music that has a surprise Along with the final fugue in D minor, the Grainger seems to hover above the piece, with its end of this prelude. It results from the progress tonal ending. B-flat minor is the most extended of the cycle. witty harmonic twists and turns. of the majestic chorale that opens it, as it In the former case, its length is determined by alternates several times with a nervous and Prelude and Fugue No.16 in B-Flat Minor an extended coda to the whole cycle after the music Prelude and Fugue No.18 in F Minor tonally ambiguous passage of short chords. The has ceased to be fugal. In this case, however, it fugue, in three voices, that follows is perhaps According to Tatiana Nicolayeva, the B-flat is the extreme length of the subject and the A beautiful melody line opens the prelude, tinged the most unapproachable of the twenty four Minor prelude is the only one of the forty eight tempo of the piece that causes its duration. with a longing sadness. The pitch gradually from the first-time listener’s point of view. pieces that make up this cycle about which descends towards the bass. Unexpectedly, the However, it is a very fine example of the form, Shostakovich had second thoughts. The original Prelude and Fugue No.17 in A-Flat Major mood is transformed as the key changes to and, in the final bars, after the fugue’s composition had been very different, and the the distant one of D major, the tempo becomes strangeness has been fully worked out, there is composer decided later to create a piece using This prelude returns to the rustic character of Adagio, and an ecstatic moment, represented a curiously satisfying and surprisingly gentle the model of a Mozartian set of variations. the preludes in D major and D-flat major, by very simple slow-moving chords is an resolution onto the tonic. His rethinking would not seem atypical of although here the music has a more unexpected as it is brief. most composers’ ways of working. That he unquestioning quality. The melancholy of the Listeners’ difficulty on first hearing stems from untypically had second thoughts over this D major and the sarcasm of the D-flat major The fugue is based on a singing and simple its consistent 5/4 time combined with a modal prelude is significant only because the composer are both mostly absent here. Instead, a pastoral subject, from which the rhythm of a quarter subject that, although revolving around the was perhaps searching for the perfect way melody line is accompanied by a simple note followed by two eighth notes becomes the tonic E-flat pitch, is chromatic to the degree to introduce the strangest of all the fugues. ostinato, reminiscent of the sound of an organ dominant force of its later development. As that it is almost atonal. The complex harmonies

- 12 - - 13 - are particularly highlighted by the mostly especially radiant in contrast. The augmentation The fugue in three voices begins lightly, in Prelude and Fugue No.23 in F Major legato and lyrical phrasing required by the of the fugal writing that occurs in the latter the style of a quick 3/4 dance. The mood is composer. Thus the whole fugue is a mêlée of half is particularly poignant, as is the use of bright, the harmonies angular – with a hint This prelude constitutes one of Shostakovich’s strange contrapuntal but lyrical lines and acerbic pedal point. However, the hushed serene beauty of Hindemith – and the gradual increase in most profoundly romantic and moving creations. harmonies – that is, until the coda, in which of the C major coda, where Shostakovich uses tension very exciting. The piece ends in a very The influence of Mahler – particularly the the harmony is resolved in a way that at least the major key material to resolve the tonality, boisterous orchestral style, with an extended famous Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony implies a diatonic solution. is perhaps the most poignant moment of all. hemiola on the final cadence. and the finale of the Ninth – is immediately obvious from the yearning turn that appears Prelude and Fugue No.20 in C Minor Prelude and Fugue No.21 in B-Flat Major Prelude and Fugue No.22 in G Minor in the melody of the first phrase to the unexpected melting modulations and the This is a very special pair of pieces. The This pair of works constitutes a formidable This prelude is a beautiful but sad – almost beautiful harmony of the final few bars. It has relationship between the theme of the prelude challenge for the performer. Whilst the prelude mournful – piece, based almost entirely on an atmosphere of calmness and serene beauty and the fugue subject is made obvious by requires a fleet delicacy and extreme speed on Shostakovich’s characteristic and expressive that completely belies any ambiguity suggested their thematic simplicity, unifying the two the part of the right hand, the extensive slurred pairs of notes, reminiscent of the by earlier works in the cycle. works. The prelude is very ponderous and fugue makes extraordinary demands of energy earlier prelude in E minor (No.4 of the cycle). atmospheric. The opening phrase is dark and and entails the negotiation of some very In contrast with the prelude, the F major fugue mysterious. The line of notes later becomes unpianistic leaps. The fugue is in three voices, and is another is lyrical, leisurely and amiable. Its position as the subject of the fugue. It is answered by a of Shostakovich’s autumnal and deliberately the penultimate fugue in the cycle of twenty lonely voice in the treble. This contrast is The prelude is a tour de force. Its relentless suspenseful statements. Vocal in style, the four gives it a special significance that it repeated several times over – the immediately sixteenth notes in the treble are accompanied subject has a harmonic simplicity that make seems at first unwilling to adopt. However, if obvious similarity to many of the composer’s for the most part by continuous quarter notes parts of it sound as if they could be from any one views it as the successor to a particularly symphonic slow movements is compounded in the bass. It could be taken as an étude for period of music. The work remains in the minor open-hearted and nostalgic prelude, and the with each phrase. the right hand, given that at no point does key at the end, and the whole impression of predecessor to the uniquely powerful final the left hand take over the semi quavers; both prelude and fugue is one of suspenseful prelude and fugue, its static nature takes on The beautiful fugue in four voices is one of Chopin and Liszt would undoubtedly have irresolution – a refusal to answer the intangible a logical significance in the grand scale of the the greatest of the cycle. The simple subject – a reversed the roles of the hands at some point. questions posed by itself. cycle as a whole. derivative of the first bar of the prelude – is The predominant mood is one of humour itself modal. Again the atmosphere is one of throughout, and after several modulations into quiet melancholia, its major key episodes distant keys, the piece snuffs itself out like a light.

- 14 - - 15 - Prelude and Fugue No.24 in D Minor first movement of the composer’s own Tenth Donohoe has appeared with Dresden Symphony is here evoked. From here onwards, Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and The D minor is the climax, not only of this the music is not fugal at all, but constitutes a Concert Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic magnificent cycle of preludes and fugues, but coda to the whole cycle. Gradually the tension Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonia, RTE perhaps of the whole of Shostakovich’s piano increases until, out of an avalanche of octaves National Symphony Orchestra, Belarusian State works. The slow declamatory majesty of the in the key of C minor, the tonality shifts Symphony Orchestra, and City of Birmingham opening of the prelude rises like a monolith suddenly to a triumphant D major, and the Symphony Orchestra. He has undertaken a UK from the apparently calculated stasis of the majestic trumpet tune of the fugue subject tour with the Russian State Philharmonic preceding fugue in F major. After a few bars blares out. This ‘triumphant moment’ is one Orchestra, as well as giving concerts in many the tension increases even more and a crisis of only two occasions on which the dynamic South American and European countries, China, is reached with three fortissimo bars. After level of ‘fortississimo’ is used in the cycle Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, and the USA. the music subsides, an heroic theme in G of twenty four preludes and fugues – the other Other engagements include performances of major sounds; this has the character of a being at the end. all three MacMillian piano concertos with the military memorial eulogy played on a distant BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a series trumpet, and will later become the subject of © 2014, Peter Donohoe of concerts for the Ravel and Rachmaninov the fugue. Festival at Bridgewater Hall, and numerous performances with The Orchestra of the Swan. The final work in this cycle is in two sections. PETER DONOHOE Donohoe is also in high demand as a jury The first is a quiet fully worked-out fugue member for international competitions. He

– complete in its own right, built from the Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. has served on the juries at the International © Sussie Alhburg pianissimo trumpet tune that appears after the He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow (2011 Recent discs include a disc of Scriabin Piano first statement of the prelude. A succession of seven years, graduated in music at Leeds and 2015), Busoni International Competition Sonatas (SOMM Records) which was described continuous eighth notes heralds the beginning University, and went on to study at the in Bolzano, Italy (2012), the Queen Elisabeth as ‘magnificent’ by the Sunday Times; a of the second part of this enormous piece. The Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Competition in Brussels (2016), Georges Enescu recording of Witold Maliszewski’s Piano eighth notes that create the forward movement Wyndham and then in Paris with Olivier Competition in Bucharest (2016), Hong Kong Concerto in B-flat minor with the Royal towards the coda are again in pairs, similar Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. He is acclaimed International Piano Competition (2016), and Scottish National Orchestra conducted by to those of the Preludes in E minor (No.4) and as one of the foremost pianists of our time, Ricardo Viñes International Competition in Martin Yates (Dutton Vocalion); and three G minor (No.22), giving the music a similarly for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and Lleida, Spain, along with many national discs of Prokofiev piano sonatas for SOMM yearning character. Again, the mood of the commanding technique. competitions both within the UK and abroad. Records, the third of which was released at

- 16 - - 17 - the end of April 2016. The first Prokofiev disc He made his twenty-second appearance at the was described by Gramophone as ‘devastatingly BBC Proms in 2012 and has appeared at effective’, declaring Donohoe to be ‘in his many other festivals including six consecutive element’, and a review in Classical Notes visits to the Edinburgh Festival, La Roque identified Donohoe’s ‘remarkably sensitive d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and approach to even the most virtuosic of Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany. In the repertoire’. His second Prokofiev disc was given United States, his appearances have included 5 stars by BBC Music Magazine, and the third the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, disc was highly praised by The Times, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit Symphony Birmingham Post, and Jessica Duchen. Other Orchestras. Peter Donohoe also performs Recorded in Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, UK from 16-19 February 2014. Producer & Editor – Nicholas Parker recordings include Cyril Scott’s Piano Concerto numerous recitals internationally and continues Recording Engineer – Mike Hatch with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Martin working with his long standing duo partner Assistant Engineer – Richard Bland

Yates (Dutton Vocalion), and Malcolm Arnold’s Martin Roscoe, as well as more recent Cover Image – Shutterstock Fantasy on a Theme of John Field with the collaborations with artists such as Raphael Design and Artwork – Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk

Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Martin Wallfisch, Elizabeth Watts and Noriko Ogawa. P 2017 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd Yates (also Dutton), for which BBC Music © 2017 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd

Magazine described him as an ‘excellent Donohoe has worked with many of the world’s Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. soloist’, and Gramophone stated that it greatest conductors: Christoph Eschenbach, No part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, ‘compelled from start to finish’. Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andrew recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.

Davis and Yevgeny Svetlanov. More recently he SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK. Donohoe has performed with all the major has appeared as soloist with the next generation +44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] London orchestras, as well as orchestras from of excellent conductors: Gustavo Dudamel, www.signumrecords.com across the world: the Royal Concertgebouw, Robin Ticciati and Daniel Harding. Peter Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Donohoe is an honorary doctor of music at Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de seven UK universities, and was awarded a Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Czech CBE for services to classical music in the Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also played 2010 New Year’s Honours List. with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director.

- 18 - - 19 - ALSO AVAILABLE on signumclassics

Shostakovich: Hypothetically Murdered Shostakovich: Symphony No.7, ‘Leningrad’ City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra Mark Elder conductor Yuri Temirkanov conductor SIGCD051 SIGCD194

“... Shostakovich’s long-lost score for a 1931 music-hall show... “Whether you believe Shostakovich’s seventh to be a noble enjoys a timely resurrection ... you’ll enjoy the first incarnation of expression of defiance in the face of nazism or a crude outpouring romps recycled in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the First Piano of patriotic fervour, there is no denying the power of it when Concerto, as well as the discreet tinklings of the bar-room piano, played so proudly by an orchestra from the city for which it the excellent, jazz-friendly CBSO soloists who also savour the was written.” The Observer solos of the jazz suite at the other end of the programme, and the authentic wail of the flexatone.” BBC Music Magazine Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000

- 20 - CTP Template: CD_INL1 COLOURS Compact Disc Back Inlay CYAN MAGENTA Customer SignumClassics YELLOW Catalogue No.SIGCD396 BLACK Job Title: 24 Preludes

SIGNUM CLASSICS SIGCD396

24 PRELUDES AND FUGUES, Op.87

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975) FUGUES & PRELUDES 24 SHOSTAKOVICH:

DISC 1 DISC 2

DONOHOE 1 - 2 No.1 in C Major [7.17] 1 - 2 No.14 in E-Flat Minor [7.03] 3 - 4 No.2 in A Minor [2.19] 3 - 4 No.15 in D-Flat Major [4.45] 5 - 6 No.3 in G Major [3.36] 5 - 6 No.16 in B-Flat Minor [8.28] 7 - 8 No.4 in E Minor [8.10] 7 - 8 No.17 in A-Flat Major [5.17] 9 - 0 No.5 in D Major [3.58] 9 - 0 No.18 in F Minor [5.48] q - w No.6 in B Minor [5.50] q - w No.19 in E-Flat Major [4.44] e - r No.7 in A Major [3.50] e - r No.20 in C Minor [9.50] t - y No.8 in F-Sharp Minor [6.48] t - y No.21 in B-Flat Major [3.52] u - i No.9 in E Major [4.46] u - i No.22 in G Minor [5.41] o - p No.10 in C-Sharp Minor [6.39] o - p No.23 in F Major [7.39] a - s No.11 in B Major [3.17] a - s No.24 in D Minor [12.51] d - f No.12 in G-Sharp Minor [8.09] g - h No.13 in F-Sharp Major [7.26] Total timings: [75.58]

Total timings: [72.05] Grand total: [148.03]

DONOHOE SHOSTAKOVICH: 24 PRELUDES & FUGUES PETER DONOHOE PIANO

LC15723 Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth SIGCD396 CLASSICS Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom. P 2017 Signum Records DDD SIGCD396 © 2017 Signum Records www.signumrecords.com 24 bit digital recording 6 35212 03962 5 SIGNUM