As a passionate lover of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Dmitri Shostakovich was very conscious of counterpoint and had great skill in this area himself. After his visit to Leipzig on the 200th anniversary of Bach's death, Shostakovich began his extensive cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues for piano as a tribute to his revered predecessor. Although the pieces were initially largely ignored and met with incomprehension in both the Soviet Union and the West, they have since become firmly establis...