Präludien Und Fugen Op. 87 Auswahl - Nr. 4 E-moll / Nr. 12 Gis-moll / Nr. 14 Es-moll / Nr. 15 Des-dur / Nr. 17 As-dur / Nr. 19 Es-dur / Nr. 23 F-dur / Nr. 24 D-moll

Dmitri Shostakovich composed his 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87, between 1950 and 1951 after attending the Bach bicentennial celebrations in Leipzig. Inspired by the meticulous counterpoint of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Shostakovich wrote the cycle for the pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva, who had won the Bach Competition that year. The work serves as a monumental contribution to 20th-century keyboard literature, blending Shostakovich’s characteristic irony and harmonic intensity with traditional baroque structures.

Tatiana Nikolayeva is inextricably linked to the work, having premiered the cycle and recorded it multiple times throughout her career. This 1975 Melodia Eterna release represents a refined chapter in her long association with the score. Her interpretations are widely regarded by musicologists and critics as the definitive standard for the cycle, capturing the composer's structural rigor and emotional depth with a clarity that has defined the performance practice of the set for subsequent generations of pianists.