Just imagine for a moment that there was a great 20th century filmaker, say Orson Welles, who made a truly magnificent movie. Imagine that it had everything - a superb cast, innovative direction, a moving storyline, beautiful photography - a masterpiece of cinema.

And just imagine the most amazing thing - that this movie was rarely showed and virtually unknown, even amongst movie buffs.

Well that's how I feel about Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues for Piano. This monumental work is probably the greatest work for piano of the last one hundred years. And yet it remains unheard and until recently, almost unknown.

Its pedigree dates back to 1691. Before then, the musical scale was by no means standardised. The intervals between whole and half tones were not uniform, so an instrument would be tuned to one key and music could not be played in a key at any distance from that key.

In 1691, a music theoretician named Andreas Werckmeister published a revolutionary document called "Musical Tempering, or True and Clear Mathematical Instruction how one can Properly Tune a Clavier".

His idea was to define the octave as the only pure interval, and divide it into 12 equal half tones. For the first time, any interval of music in any key sounded harmonically the same. To put it another way, any piece of music could be successfully transposed to any key and played on one intrument without re-tuning.

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the first to recognise the importance of this innovation, and in 1722 published his collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues, one for each key in major and minor. He called them the "Well-Tempered Clavier, or Preludes and Fugues in all the Tones and Semitones". In 1744, he repeated the exercise (now called the "Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II").

Bach's plan was not just to pedantically explore the possibility of composing in 24 keys, but to create a work in which 24 individual works with individual styles and moods form a cohesive whole. And despite its academic origins, it has been popular ever since it was written.

Shostakovich admired Bach immensely. In 1950 he had the rare honour and privelage, especially for a composer out of favour with a repressive Soviet regime, to be invited to Leipzig for the 200th anniversary of Bach's death.

At the concert Shostakovich was impressed by Tatiana Nikolaeva's performance of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The final work of the event was to be Bach's Concerto in D minor for three pianos, with Tatiana Nikolaeva, Maria Youdina and Pavel Serebriakov as soloists. Amazingly, at the last minute and with no preparation, Shostakovich had to step in and take the part of Youdina, after she injured her finger.

The result of this was that Shostakovich was inspired to write his own set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, in the spirit of Bach, but clearly in the style of Shostakovich. And it was the same Tatiana Nikolaeva to whom he dedicated it, and who gave its first performance in 1952. It became a central part of her repertoire, recording it 3 times, and in fact dying suddenly after performing it in San Francisco in November 1992.

Why Preludes and Fugues? Shostakovich's set again explores the different textures and moods of each key. The informal, unstructured, almost fantasia-like prelude is coupled with a fugue, rigidly organised, following the strict rules of counterpoint. Sometimes the prelude complements the fugue, sometimes it is set against it. Sometimes like follows like, sometimes opposites attract. They vary from relaxed and languid, to frantic and pressured, but also through the lighthearted and cheeky. Despite following the structure of Bach, this is Shostakovich, and Shostakovich at his best, with his trademark motifs, harmonies and moods.

This is an immense piece, almost 3 hours in its entirity. Each prelude and fugue set can be listened to as a miniature masterpiece, or the entire set can be savoured as a monumental whole, a universe of music made up of individual galaxies, each as different as the next.

Maybe it is this sheer size, or maybe its the Shostakovich reputation for difficulty that makes this work less appreciated than it should be. It deserves to be recognised as the landmark work that it is.

Since Nikolaeva's recording, there is now some competition in the market. Keith Jarrett, best known as a jazz pianist, gives a technically perfect, but rushed interpretation. Vladimir Ashkenazy provides his usual polished, professional performance. There is even an archival recording of Shostakovich playing many of the Preludes and Fugues himself.

But it is Nikolaeva, the dedicatee who is most qualified to interpret and gives the most relaxed, loving performance. Her recording is the result of the great path of inspiration leading from Bach and Shostakovich.

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