Two pianos for Bach & Shostakovich

Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy

Pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy are among today’s hottest young musical stars. Winners of the Honens Competition in Calgary and the Campilos de Malaga in Spain respectively, they offer us an alternation of preludes and fugues for piano by JS Bach and Dmitri Shostakovich. An ingenious idea, since Shostakovich’s collection was written in homage to Bach, in reference to the Well-Tempered Clavier. According to pianist Alexander Melnikov, a pupil of the great Lev Naumov, Shostakovich’s Opus 87 “expresses the voice of a tormented man, who still finds the strength to face life as it is, in all its diversity, its ugliness, and sometimes its beauty.”

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in C major, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 861

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Prelude and Fugue in D major no. 5, op.  87

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in D minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, BWV 885

Dmitri Shostakovich & J.S. Bach
Duo – Prelude in A major, op.87 and Fugue in A major, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2

J.S. Bach & Dmitri Shostakovich
Duo – Prelude in A major, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II and Fugue in A major

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Prelude and Fugue in D minor no. 24, op. 87

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in G minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 861

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Prelude and Fugue C major no. 1, op. 87

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Duo – Prelude and Fugue in B minor, op 87

J.S. Bach & Dmitri Shostakovich
Prelude in A minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 861 and Fugue in A minor

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, BWV 861

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
Prelude and Fugue in E flat minor, op.87

J.S. Bach & Dmitri Shostakovich
Prelude in F sharp major, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, BWV 875 and Fugue in F sharp major

J.S. Bach (1685 – 1750)
Duo – Prelude and Fugue in G minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, BWV 875

Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy, two pianos on stage

Photo credit: Joss McKinley