★★★★☆
For the bicentenary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death, the Soviets sent their top composer to Leipzig to judge a competition in Bach’s name. Having endured Stalinist attacks for two years, Dmitri Shostakovich was caught between a rock and a hard place. A system that denounced him for “formalism” and threatened his freedom was now sending him as a cultural ambassador to a country under occupation where he would be viewed with hostility masked in sycophancy.
Not knowing what to say, where to turn, he focussed on Tatiana Nikolaeva, a Russian pianist in the Bach competition who was declared the winner by a Soviet-rigged jury. Something in the way Nikolaeva played Bach appealed to Shostakovich and gave him an idea. He composed 24 Preludes and Fugues — in Bach’s footsteps — and gave them to Nikolaeva to perform in Leningrad in December 1952. Soviet critics complained of a lack of “socialist content”. Western critics ignored the set.
Almost forty years later, Nikolaeva performed the set in London and recorded it for the new Hyperion label in a Hampstead chapel. Thick-set and unsmiling, Nikolaeva played with a fierce concentration that left her listeners breathless. Every subsequent performance has been judged against hers, and found wanting.
So it is a relief to report that we have finally entered a post-Nikolaeva domain where a pianist might dare to offer a degree of difference. Yulianna Adveeva, 2010 Chopin competition winner, brings a light touch to the monumental work. Her approach is conversational rather than worshipful or pedagogic. She finds riddles in the music, leaving them for the listener to resolve.
No sooner is one episode over — some are less than a minute, the longest over seven — than she hits the refresh button and confronts us with a fresh conundrum. The third prelude reveals a hint of Requiem, the eighth fugue a twist of Happy Birthday in F# minor with a sombre mood. Go figure.
I like Andreeva’s approach, her refusal to be definitive. I will always respect Nikolaeva, but if I want to wear a happier face, I’ll go for this set.
And so should you.
