Shostakovich: Prelude and Fugue in A major, op. 87, no. 7

At the first Leipzig Bach Competition in 1951, the Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva did something quite unusual. She offered to play any of the 48 preludes and fugues from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier – the jury members could choose which ones they’d like to hear. This extraordinary feat inspired the Soviet-era Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), who sat on the jury, to create his own set of 24 preludes and fugues, one in each key. Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, op. 87 are generally thought to reflect the composer’s inner, intensely private world, as with his string quartets, but in contrast to the public persona displayed in his symphonies.

This afternoon, we’ll hear the seventh in Shostakovich’s monumental cycle of preludes and fugues. Shostakovich’s prelude, like those of his model Bach, is meant to sound improvised. The evocative fantasy, with its two individual musical lines coexisting on equal footing, could at first be mistaken for an actual prelude by Bach until Shostakovich introduces his own distinctive melodic twists. Fugues are the result of a rigorous formulaic process in which a theme is stated first on its own and then imitated at different pitch levels, the result being a complex multi-layered musical tapestry. Most fugue themes employ at least some stepwise motion (the keys next to each other on the piano), whereas Shostakovich here creates a theme using only the three pitches of an A major triad. Creating a fugue out of such unusual thematic material results in a sense of expanse and temporal stillness that foreshadows the music of later composers such as Arvo Pärt and Henryk Górecki.

Walker: Piano Sonata No. 5

The remarkable career of the African American pianist and composer George Theophilus Walker (1922-2008), remains (sadly) largely unknown. A student of the legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Walker, like many young American composers in the middle decades of the twentieth century, journeyed to France to study composition with the esteemed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. But being a black man in the white-dominated classical music industry of mid-twentieth century America meant that both he and his music were largely sidelined from the white mainstream. Importantly, his work was being promoted and performed in black communities. In 1996, Walker became the first black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music with his Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra.

Walker’s five piano sonatas exhibit a wide array of approaches. The first was written in 1953, and the fifth, which we’ll hear today, fifty years later, in 2003, when Walker was 80. Like the late works of many composers, the Fifth Sonata offers a distillation of a lifetime of musical practices. Lasting just under five minutes, its principal musical material is generated from a four-note opening gesture. The sonata is filled with displays of angular energy and lyrical introspection, of playfulness and pensivity and of thick textures and terse harmonies. Its density of expression is in notable contrast to that of Shostakovich’s fugue.

Granados: Valses poéticos

Enrique Granados (1867-1916) was one of the principal proponents of Spanish Romanticism. His music is filled with emotion-laden evocations of Spain, heard largely through dance rhythms such as those of the bolero and seguidilla and allusions to the sounds of the guitar. During the nineteenth century, waltzes were popular in Spanish ballrooms, as they were throughout the Atlantic world. The intimacy of this dance, in which couples spin in clockwise circles while moving around the dance floor in counter-clockwise motion, delighted spectators as well as dancers and inspired composers to capture its distinctive spirit.

Granados wrote his Valses poéticos for solo piano in 1887. The extended sequence of eight waltzes is framed by an introduction and a reminiscent epilogue, which in this instance consists of a reprise of the first waltz. It thus follows the model of Johann Strauss II’s extended Viennese waltzes such as The Beautiful Blue Danube (1867) and Tales from the Vienna Woods (1868), but here with a distinctive Spanish flair. Different moods come to the fore in each waltz, from unbridled joy and sparking virtuosity to deep secrecy and longing introspection. Of special note are the strong Viennese aroma that pervades the fifth waltz and the intimate spirit of salon music, with its evocation of the waltzes of another pianist-composer, Frédéric Chopin, in the sixth.

Bach: Partita No. 5

While nowadays it is easy to find published versions of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), this was not always the case. The Partita No. 5 to be heard this afternoon, published in 1730, was among only a handful of Bach’s pieces to be published during the composer’s lifetime. Along with five other partitas, it was republished in part 1 of the Clavier-Übung (Keyboard Practice) the following year. At the time these works appeared, Bach was working in Leipzig, where since 1723 he had been cantor at St. Thomas’s Church and director of music for the city’s four major churches. He also organised the city’s Collegium Musicum (Friends of Music), a group of musicians who performed regularly at Café Zimmerman, located just off Leipzig’s main square. It is likely that the café’s clientele were the first to hear the splendid music that concludes the first half of today’s concert.

A partita is a collection of dances. They are not meant to be danced (which in some instances would be impossible) but rather to suggest the spirit of different sorts of dances. Partita No. 5 begins with a lavish Praeambulum, an improvisatory-sounding scale-filled fantasia akin to an enhanced version of a prelude in a prelude and fugue. A prescribed sequence of popular eighteenth-century dances then follows, beginning with a courtly allemande and a sweeping corrente. Next comes another pair, this time a graceful sarabande and a playful minuet. A regal passepied and a lively gigue bring the partita to its conclusion. The gigue not only captures the mood of a fast-paced fiddle dance but does so through a double fugue. Here, Bach presents two different fugues, each with its own subject and clever imitations. What is truly astonishing is that these two fugues unfold simultaneously, showing the virtuosity of the composer and demanding the musical intellect of the performer to effectively convey their musical complexity to the listener.

Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3, op. 5

When Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) wrote his Third Piano Sonata in 1853, he was just twenty years old. It was a pivotal time in his life when his fame as both a pianist and a composer were skyrocketing. Youthful energy combines with a sense of musical profundity in this highly imaginative work. One of its most original aspects is that it is in five movements, rather than the traditional three or four. The sonata’s overall architectural plan thereby forms an arch: two large-scale outer movements, sublime slow movements placed second and fourth and a central scherzo.

The first movement, like the entire sonata, is filled with contrasts and juxtapositions of various sorts. The grand opening gesture, bursting with drama, ultimately leads to a noble and heroic theme. Strength emerges from the musical storms, as does a sense of solace. At various places throughout the movement, Brahms employs the same four-note motif immortalised by Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony (three short notes and long one) to further a sense of expectation and gravitas.

In the original score, just above the beginning of the second movement, Brahms inserts an excerpt from a poem by Karl Sternau:

Twilight falls, the moonlight shines,

Two hearts are united in love,

And keep themselves in bliss enclosed.

This poetic description offers insights into Brahms’s idea for the movement. The two hearts are represented by two alternating musical themes, one marked ‘espressivo’ (expressive), and the other ‘äußerst leise und zart’ (extremely quiet and tender). This gentle exchange leads into a new section, one filled with enraptured intensity and passion.

The central scherzo movement is not what one might expect – not light and springy like those associated with Felix Mendelssohn – but tumultuous and filled with unrest. Here is Brahms the musical rebel, redefining what a scherzo can be and infusing it with a sense of musical drama at odds with its jovial reputation. The contrasting middle section is more chorale-like, and like the heroic theme in the first movement, suggests respite amongst the storms that surround it.

The fourth movement reveals yet more of the sonata’s innovative spirit. Titled ‘Rückblick’ (Remembrance), it is not only retrospective in mood but also begins with a recollection, a remembrance, of the main theme of the second movement. The Beethovenian four-note motif from the first movement also returns (as it does in the third movement), now imbued with a new sense of prominence.

The fifth movement is a massive rondo, in which a recurring theme is separated by contrasting material. Brahms begins the movement softly, as is typical of many of his finales. The contrasting sections include hints of music heard earlier in the sonata, thus providing a sense of musical unity across the movements. Like the last movement of the Bach Partita that concluded the first half today, this final movement demands a high level of virtuosity from the performer to bring to life the virtuoso writing of its composer.

About the Artist

London-based pianist Amiri Harewood’s inclusion on the list of Classic FM’s 2025 Rising Stars is just one of this exciting young artist’s latest accolades. A grand prize winner of the Young Classical Artist Trust and the Concert Artists Guild International Auditions 2024, Amiri has already given solo recitals at prestigious UK venues such as Steinway Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Institut Français, Bishopsgate Institute and the Royal Albert Hall (as part of the Steinway Young Artists series) as well as at the Conservatorio in Venice and the Mozart Music Festival in Forli, Italy. Geoff Brown, in The Times, wrote that his Royal Festival Hall performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Chineke! Orchestra showed ‘considerable panache’. Amiri was selected as one of the first Tabor Piano Ambassadors for the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition, representing the Royal College of Music, where he is currently a postgraduate student under the tutelage of Danny Driver.

-Notes by William Everett