Music Chamber

The twenty-four preludes traverse all major and minor keys. They provide a glimpse into the young Shostakovich’s personal life and cover an emotional range from sardonic humour and playfulness to excruciating pain and sombreness. With the composer's infamous Pravda denunciation three years away - late 1932 and early 1933 was a period of great compositional success for the young man. He composed these preludes at almost a pace of one every two days. They were likely designed to show off his virtuosic capabilities, as he was embarking on a career as a concert pianist. Following the model of Bach, Chopin and Scriabin the preludes traverse all the keys, but they far from academic exercises and more “psychological sketches”. The pieces are short but extremely technically challenging. As might be expected from Shostakovich, the lines are quite disjunct; having leaps of up to two octaves between notes. Annett Busse has performed these pieces in concert many times, never afraid to take them at the composers prescribed, fearsome tempi. Also included on this album are a rarely heard discovery of Annett’s: the Doll’s Dances. These charming miniatures were compiled in 1953 from his ballet suites and film scores.