Biography (read more)
Tatiana Petrovna Nikolayeva was born in Bezhitsa on 4 May 1924 to a pianist mother trained under Goldenweiser, whose Moscow Conservatory class she herself joined. First prize at the 1950 Bach bicentenary competition in Leipzig changed music history: Shostakovich, on the jury, wrote his 24 Preludes and Fugues for her. She taught generations in Moscow and died in San Francisco on 22 November 1993, days after a stroke on stage — playing that same cycle.
Nikolayeva owned the two great fugal cycles of the repertoire: her Bach was the Soviet reference, and the Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues were literally hers — written for her, premiered by her, recorded three times. Her readings anchor every comparison of that repertoire on this site; hearing anyone else in Op. 87 means hearing them against her.
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