Dmitri Shostakovich: 24 Preludes & Fugues, op. 87

The Music/Background: As Jarrett said in 1991, "When I first saw these pieces in a music shop, I knew I wanted to play them. I recognised the language. But when I started playing them, they were so close to me that I knew I had to record them." He began including Shostakovich pieces in his recitals in 1985, alongside works by Beethoven, Scarlatti and Bach, and his Shostakovich recording followed his acclaimed account of the two books of The Well-Tempered Clavier. There was a musical-historical logic to the choice, as well: it had been a performance of Bach's "48" at a piano competition in Lepizig in 1950 that inspired Shostakovich to write his own cycle of preludes and fugues. "It didn't feel like I was playing someone else's music," said Jarrett of his first encounter with the Op 87. "[The pieces] are coming from some strange quirky place that I'm familiar with. They're not pianistic' in the traditional way..." Wilfred Mellers sums up the merits of Opus 87 in the liner notes: "If there is a single work among his large output that assures us that Shostakovich is among the great composers nurtured by our bruised and battered century, this collection of Preludes and Fugues is it. One might go so far as to say that it places him among the supreme composers in any phase of Europe's history. Listen and you will hear." Press reactions: "With this recording, Mr Jarrett has finally staked an indisputable claim to distinction in the realm of classical music. Even in our multicultural, multistylistic age, it is still extremely difficult to cross over from one field to another. Mr Jarrett, having long since established himself in jazz, can now be called a classical pianist of the first rank." - New York Times "The Shostakovich is, quite simply, one of the touchstones of the keyboard literature, and the value of Jarrett's committed advocacy of this piece cannot be overestimated. He really has done an outstanding job: listening to him is simply a joy