The Art of Prelude and Fugue

The Art of Prelude and Fugue, a mammoth and visionary solo project, is a first-of-its-kind curation of the entire Well-Tempered Clavier of J.S. Bach interspersed with the complete Preludes and Fugues of Dmitri Shostakovich, with an emphasis on the striking connections and synthesis between the works.

The music of these two musical geniuses is highly complex, deeply contemplative, and rigorously structured. Yet each work transcends the boundaries it embraces, transporting us to a realm of the most spiritual kind. While challenging us to comprehend its incredible complexity, the music also offers us a place of stillness, serenity, and deep reflection. It is not just beautiful. It is significant. It contributes to our cultural fabric and illuminates our humanity.

In 1722, celebrated Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a set of contrapuntal exercises called Preludes and Fugues, one in each major and minor key of the twelve-step chromatic scale. This systematic series of intellectual and technical keyboard exercises was intended “for the profit and use of musical youth desirous of learning, and especially for the pastime of those already skilled in this study.” Some 20 years later Bach composed a second book of the same kind, which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. Together the books represent some of the most important pieces of music literature in the Western musical tradition. The 19th century conductor Hans von Bülow called it “the Old Testament” of piano music; Robert Schumann described it as “daily bread.”

Two centuries later, Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich traveled to Germany to serve as president of the jury for the first Bach competition. All competitors were required to present one prelude and fugue of Bach; when Tatiana Nikolayeva took the stage, she informed the jury she was prepared to play any one of the set of forty-eight compositions. Dumbfounded, they selected one; she played it, won the competition, and began a lifelong friendship with Shostakovich. Shortly upon his return to Saint Petersburg, Shostakovich was inspired to write his own set of preludes and fugues, which Tatiana Nikolayeva championed, performing and recording the cycle multiple times throughout her life.

Many pianists have performed and recorded the complete Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach. Only a handful have performed and recorded the entire opus of Shostakovich’s preludes and fugues. A few have built concerts using excerpts from both works. But no one has performed both monumental cycles in their entirety—until now.

One of the most remarkable aspects of J.S. Bach’s keyboard music is the dearth of extramusical instruction. Bach offers next to no indications of tempo, dynamics, or articulations. Rather than being prescriptive, Bach gives us a blank canvas. The performer is an interpreter responsible for huge amounts of the musical decision making, yielding personal and individualistic performances that vary immensely from one artist to the next. The music emerges from any interpretation unassaulted and unblemished. It transcends any one performer’s voice.

Though Shostakovich provides significantly more instruction to the performer than Bach, he, too, leaves much to the performer. His music finds a similar potency through complexity masked as simplicity. Both composers rely almost entirely on a Baroque compositional technique known as counterpoint to carry the weight of their message.

Presenting these two works interstitially is both shockingly unorthodox and a most natural partnership. The curation both contextualizes an exceedingly well-known work and brings to greater attention a lesser known masterpiece.

Phase One of this project was the live performance of the entire curation; I presented more than eight hours of music in a series of four concerts that took place at Baltimore's Peabody Institute of Music during the 2018-19 season. The forty-eight Bach Preludes and Fugues I performed in order. Shostakovich’s twenty-four I interspersed throughout where homage is present, even obvious. Response to these concerts was huge; audiences were transfixed. One listener wrote, "The programming here is fabulous, but the success of the concerts is also due to Ms. Johnson's bravery at the keyboard... Ms. Johnson looks to present each prelude and fugue with an individual sonic and emotional spirit... a disciplined performer, she somehow manages to exude both emotion and reserve simultaneously."

Documentary filmmakers Scott Meyers and Ali Walton created a video portrait dedicated to my work as an artist and to this project in particular which is included in this portfolio.

Phase Two, currently in progress, is a series of residencies at music schools and departments around the country. These residencies include one or two recitals with accompanying lectures, masterclasses, and clinics on such topics as How To Really Learn a Fugue. The first of these residencies happened at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Fall 2019. More residencies will take place over coming semesters.

Phase Three will be the recording of the project. I will partner with Steinway & Sons to produce recordings of each concert as it was initially curated, with accompanying program notes for historical context and a listening guide designed to illuminate the creative process. One audience member described the listening guide as "profoundly illuminating... I've never been to another concert in which a musician makes their thought process available to the audience, and I noticed a real difference in my ability to engage with the music on an intellectual level."

TRAILER: Lura Johnson – The Art of Prelude and Fuguefrom Scott Meyers on Vimeo.