Shostakovich

Recently I found myself at the Conservatory, listening to Craig Sheppard play Shostakovich's '24 Preludes and Fugues' Opus 87. I didn't know this work. I've heard his symphonies and string quartets and have seen the opera 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk', but haven't heard much else. So Opus 87 was a revelation. The variety of moods and styles was astonishing. Within a few bars the mood could change from lyrical charm to anger to humor and more. A fugue could open as a simple exercise in two-part counterpoint and suddenly explode into several voices and as complex a structure as one could follow. The work takes more than two hours to perform. There was one interval, during which about half the audience deserted the hall. Crass, I thought. Some students brought scores, which they followed assiduously. I spoke with one young man who knew the work; he contrasted it with Hindemith's 'Ludus Tonalis'. Said the performer after long applause and a standing ovation, "This is great stuff, isn't it?"