Rodion Shchedrin

On these two CDs Rodion Shchedrin plays his own large-scale polyphonic music for piano: the Polyphonic Notebook, op. 50, and the two books of 24 Preludes and Fugues, op. 29 and op. 45. The recordings were made in Moscow by Melodiya between 1966 and 1973, and Wergo reissued them in its Shchedrin edition.

Shchedrin was born in Moscow in 1932, the son of a composer and music teacher, and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1955 in both composition and piano. For over a decade he chaired the Composers' Union of the Russian Federation, succeeding Shostakovich at his request, and he later lived between Munich and Moscow. Known worldwide for his Carmen Suite, he was also a virtuoso pianist who often performed his own works. Book I of the Preludes and Fugues, "Sharp Keys", was recorded in 1966, Book II, "Flat Keys", in 1971, and the Polyphonic Notebook in 1973. The composer recalls the night session for the Notebook: the piano sounded good, there was strong tea in a thermos, and the recording went on until well after three in the morning.

The Polyphonic Notebook consists of 25 polyphonic preludes, each built on a contrapuntal technique named in its title: Invention in Two Parts, Canon at the Octave, Mirror Canon, Recitative and Crab Motion, Chaconne, Passacaglia, Double Fugue. It closes with The Horizontal and the Vertical and a Polyphonic Mosaic. The 24 Preludes and Fugues move through all the keys in pairs, the sharp keys in the first book from C major to G-sharp minor, the flat keys in the second from G-flat major to D minor. The longest pair, in C minor, lasts over ten minutes.

Shchedrin himself introduced the release. He was glad that Wergo was issuing these recordings, noting that Melodiya made brilliant recordings at the time, and that it might be all the more interesting to hear them after so long, set against those difficult and turbulent years. Schott describes his music as unmistakably Russian in character and international in its reach.

2CD, Wergo WER 6689 2, released in 2007. Total running time 154'42".