Ravinia 2022, Issue 5

op. 7 (1827), launching a decade of fugal writ- ing for chorus, piano, organ, and string quar- tet. A series of independent fugues for piano began to appear in 1827, beginning with two pieces in E minor. Another fugue in B minor emerged in 1832, followed by fugues in D ma- jor, F minor, and A-flat major in late 1824 and early 1835. By this time, Mendelssohn had en- visioned a collection of fugues, each preceded by an étude. “The études and fugues are not finished,” he reported to the publisher Breit- kopf & Härtel on April 10, 1835, “but will be sent as soon as they are ready.” Progress on the collection appears to have stalled for an 18-month period, as Mendels- sohn produced little étude music and revised some of the fugues. The project reemerged in October 1836 with renewed focus: a set of six preludes (in the Bach tradition, entitled “Praeludium” on the manuscripts) and fugues. The composer completed the sixth fugue in B-flat major on January 3, 1837, and finalized the set of Six Preludes and Fugues, op. 35, one week later. The Prelude and Fugue in E minor, op. 35, no. 1, was one of the two original piano fugues in E minor. Mendelssohn transferred the oth- er E-minor fugue to Notre temps: Album pour 1842 , where he paired it with a new prelude composed on July 13, 1841. The op. 35, no. 1, prelude employs a fashionable keyboard tech- nique (“third hand”), in which the thumbs play the melody in the piano’s middle register, surrounded by virtuosic activity in the treble and bass. Robert Schumann considered the effect a cliché, but other pianists, critics, and (especially) audiences found the effect quite original. Mendelssohn allegedly composed the fugue at the deathbed of his 18-year-old friend August Hanstein. Its chromatic subject and dissonant contrapuntal treatment could be interpreted as depictions of Hanstein’s suf- fering. The unexpected insertion of an orig- inal chorale tune, accompanied by walking bass, toward the end of the fugue perhaps offered comfort to his dying friend. Felix Mendelssohn by Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (1834) DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–1975) Prelude and Fugue in Dminor, op. 87, no. 24 Commemorations of the 200th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach’s death took place around the world. Historically significant were events in Leipzig, the city where Bach lived the last 27 years of his life. In 1950, Leipzig was located within the newly created Communist country of East Germany. Its Bach celebra- tions, understandably, attracted musicians and dignitaries from throughout the Com- munist bloc. Dmitri Shostakovich traveled to Leipzig in July as head of an official Soviet del- egation, as soloist in a performance of Bach’s Concerto for Three Keyboards in Berlin, and as a jury member for the First International Bach Competition. His interest in the Ba- roque master’s music, though, transcended official duties. Shostakovich “took into con- sideration the experience of Johann Sebastian Bach” of writing preludes and fugues while revitalizing his own compositional technique (as had Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). As an adjudicator, Shostakovich was most impressed by Soviet competitor Tatiana Ni- kolayeva, who had memorized all 48 preludes and fugues of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier ; she allowed the judges to select her perfor- mance piece (the F-sharp minor from Book 1). Nikolayeva, who became acquainted with Shostakovich during her student years at the Moscow Conservatory, reckoned that the composer had formed his positive impression of her Bach interpretations over several years. Once back in Moscow, Shostakovich began writing preludes and fugues—approximately one every day or two—for Nikolayeva, who heard each work as it was completed. He fin- ished the entire collection between October 1950 and February 1951, the last three months at the composer’s retreat at Ruza. Shostakovich unveiled his Twenty-Four Pre- ludes, op. 87, on two successive evenings in May 1951 in the Small Hall of the Union of Composers, a trial performance before union officials and pianists. After playing the first Dmitri Shostakovich (1950) book of preludes and fugues, Shostakovich explained several aspects of its inspiration, technique, and performance practice: “I wish to say that I do not regard this composition as a cycle. It does not need to be played from the first to the last prelude and fugue. In my opinion, this is not essential; in fact, it might even harm the work, as it is indeed difficult to comprehend. It would be more correct, therefore, to play a group of six, or maybe even three or four of the pieces.” Next, he invited the audience to share their comments. A series of union representatives, described by the writer Lyubov’ Rudneva as “musical bureaucrats,” unleashed their scath- ing assessments. “In the instances where I dis- liked these preludes and fugues,” pronounced S. Skrebkov, “I would describe the music as ugly.” The pianists later rose to Shostakovich’s defense. Mariya Yudina delivered the most passionate argument: “Life will overthrow all these condemnations by you armchair theo- reticians. It will be left to us, the practical mu- sical ‘activists,’ to overcome your criticism by making the work available to the People. Your quibbling, negative judgments will wither away at their roots. And thank God for that!” Yudina’s verdict has come to prevail over the past half-century. The Twenty-Four Preludes and Fugues, op. 87—combined with the ear- lier Twenty-Four Preludes, op. 34—have earned Shostakovich an exalted position among 20th-century contrapuntists, one equal to Bach’s more than 200 years earli- er. Of course, Shostakovich’s melodic and harmonic language differs from his prede- cessor, as does the tonal organization of his “Great 48.” Both op. 34 and op. 87 are based on major and relative minor pairs (C major and A minor, for example) moving upward through the circle of fifths (next, G major and E minor). Tatiana Nikolayeva gave the first complete performance of the op. 87 preludes and fugues in Leningrad on December 23 and 28, 1952. She also played the C-major prelude and fugue at Shostakovich’s funeral at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on August 14, 1975. MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN (b.1961) Étude No. 12 in A-flat minor (Prelude and Fugue) from Twelve Études in All the Minor Keys Marc-André Hamelin has added his name to an impressive list of pianist-composers who have designed technical studies (“ études ”) for keyboard, musicians such as Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, Franz Liszt, Serge Rach- maninoff, and Robert Schumann. Add to that catalogue less-familiar composers like Charles Valentin Alkan, Felix Blumenfeld, William Bolcom, Leopold Godowsky, Nico- lai Kapustin, Alexander Michalowski, Moritz Moszkowski, and Nikolai Roslavets, and one gains a broad cross-section of Hamelin’s per- formance repertoire and discography. Inspired by Alkan’s Twelve Études in All the Minor Keys , op. 39, and deriving style traits from other celebrated composers, Hamelin commenced his own set of one dozen mi- nor-key studies, each dedicated to a fellow musician, in 1984. Work on the collection spanned 25 years, including a 12-year hiatus during which Hamelin did not compose. These dozen études are divided evenly be- tween entirely original “character pieces” and compositions that reimagine the music of past pianist-composers. The Étude No. 12 in A-flat minor (Prelude and Fugue) was Hamelin’s first large-scale composition, the fugue composed before the prelude. “Retrospectively, it seems to me that the fugue in particular has a lot in common with the tarantella-like movement of Busoni’s Piano Concerto, which I was learning at the time,” Hamelin observed. “The work was never meant to become such a monstrous agglomeration of cruel virtuosic devices; I simply wanted to explore some of the possi- bilities of the rather silly fugue subject. Once started, the piece started going pretty much on its own, in directions I hadn’t anticipated.” Pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin was born and raised in Montréal. Piano les- sons began at age 5 and continued at the École de Musique Vincent-d’Indy. Hamelin received first prize in the 1985 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competi- tion—while a graduate student at Temple University—and the 1989 Virginia Parker Prize, which helped launch his international performing and recording career. In addi- tion, Hamelin has composed throughout his career, producing approximately 60 works, mostly for solo piano. His Toccata on “L’hom- me armé” was commissioned for the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and was performed by all 30 contestants. Hamelin has received 11 Grammy Awards, seven Juno Awards, and has been named a Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Québec and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Marc-André Hamelin RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 37