In his accompanying notes to this live recording, Craig Sheppard quotes Kurt Sanderling’s comment that if Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues are his crowning and austere keyboard masterpiece, they are also his most ‘intimate diary’. This surely hints at the inwardness and complexity of an awe-inspiring opus created under painful and troubling circumstances. Composed at white heat in 1950 and 1951, Op 87 is a reply to the Soviet authorities’ scorn for music beyond their comprehension and a reaching-out to those with less banal musical expectations. First performed by Tatyana Nikolaieva, their dedicatee, in 1952, they are a ‘testament to triumph over adversity’ (Sheppard) and a worthy successor to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Generally, short preludes are followed by extended fugues, both understandably a witness to extreme mood-swings and uncertain temper. Even a direction such as tranquillo is tinged with irony and the overall effect is powerful and sardonic. The anguish of Prelude No 14, expressed in shuddering tremolandos, hints at the pressure Shostakovich worked under, while the innocent and beguiling start to Prelude No 13 leads typically to vehemence and unrest. Again, and characteristically, the crazy-paving Fugue No 15 turns mordant wit into savagery, and it is only in Fugue No 24 that defiance turns to victory in a massive carillon of Moscow bells.

The demands both musical and technical are immense and were met by Nikolaieva and Melnikov (not forgetting selections by Richter, Gilels and a single offering of No 15 from Terence Judd, whose virtuosity in the 1978 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition set his Moscow audience by the ears) with unfailing skill and dedication. Sheppard now joins their company in performances of unfailing lucidity and musicianship. His previous recordings of Bach’s major keyboard works – to say nothing of the daunting fugue from Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata – tell us that he has no fear of even the most intimidating part-writing. And here, clearly at the zenith of his career, he achieves a brilliantly inclusive poise and brio that go to the very heart of Shostakovich. He ends the Fugue No 24 in a blaze of maestoso glory and a storm of cheers. Finely recorded, this is a memorable issue.