Originally aired by the BBC in December 1992, this visual presentation of Tatiana Nikolayeva playing her signature piece, Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, allows us to observe her technique and body language at close hand, while basically confirming what we already know from the pianist’s 1987 Melodiya and 1990 Hyperion audio-only cycles (I’ve never heard her early-’60s Melodiya recording).
Sitting close to the keyboard, she grabs fast, leaping passages (the A minor and D-flat major fugues) like a low-flying bird on the lookout for prey. She also applies what I only can describe as a “bounce and peck” gesture to staccato phrases, such as in the F-sharp minor prelude’s dry left-hand accompaniment. At the same time, she shares other great Russian pianists’ propensity for real finger legato, something you can see as well as hear when her fingers slightly overlap in order to “connect the dots”, so to speak. And while it’s expedient to play the G-sharp minor prelude’s opening octaves with two hands, Nikolayeva leaves the right hand out of it.
She generally keeps a straight face, raising the occasional eyebrow anticipating a marked change of color or subito piano. Her rock-solid, forthright interpretations play no favorites among the pieces, yet when she smiles before starting a particular Prelude or Fugue (the B major prelude, for example), you sense her preferences.
In a brief bonus documentary, Nikolayeva talks about her conception of the Preludes and Fugues as a singular entity with a dramatic arc. Too bad we can’t perceive such continuity, since a title screen with the composer’s portrait precedes each individual Prelude and Fugue grouping. Nor can I pretend to love the rather bizarre, darkly lit, neo-gothic set design (more suitable to Elvira than Tatiana!). But you’ll just have to grin and bear it, because, as far as the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues on DVD go, this is the only game in town.
