Shostakovich plays Prelude and Fugue No. 16 - Part 2/2

Fugue No. 16 in B flat minor

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
Written: 1950-1951

Category:

Music

Tags:

• dmitri
• shostakovich
• prelude
• fugue

[TheMalthuse]

I didn't realize that writing music was an intellectual competition. This song has an emotional depth, complexity, and variety that you don't hear in Bachs fugues. It's not less, it's different, probably because it's modern. I find it to be one of the most beautiful and profound pieces of music ever written.

[hatstalker]

Far less intellectual in nature than Bach, but it sounds so pretty and refreshing!

[molocious]

I first heard Shostakovich playing all his preludes and fugues from an 331/2 rpm recording. I must have been twelve or thirteen and I fell in love with them. They are among my pieces of music that are talismans: magical and deeply consoling. They are a refreshment for the soul, as Bach referred to his own preludes and fugues from WTC.

This particular fugue is astonishing in its beautiful strangeness: polymetrical and non-diatonic.

[fredericfranc]

This is the second part: you get the fugue. In 1950, because of the JSB Bicetennial, Sh. worked at breakneck pace on these, while taking crap from the Communist Party, and his fellow composers in the Union of Composers, to boot. Relaxed by getting loaded, and going to soccer matches,but maintained the momentum, and the quality too. He finished theese in months, Schedrin's 24 took much longer, and they are briefer.

[danshorer]

Amazing playing. Sounds as though the ideas form the notes and grow into music.

[culturehorse]

epic ... bravo

[musicaergosum]

Thanks!