Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin's Russia

Description

The first full biography of the fearless and brilliant Maria Yudina, a legendary pianist who was central to Russian intellectual life Maria Yudina was no ordinary musician. An incredibly popular pianist, she lived on the fringes of Soviet society and had close friendships with such towering figures as Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Legend has it that she was Stalin’s favorite pianist. Yudina was at the height of her fame during WWII, broadcasting almost daily on the radio, playing concerts for the wounded and troops in hospitals and on submarines, and performing for the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. By the last years of her life, she had been dismissed for ideological reasons from the three institutions where she taught. And yet according to Shostakovich, Yudina remained “a special case. . . . The ocean was only knee-deep for her.” In this engaging biography, Elizabeth Wilson sets Yudina’s extraordinary life within the context of her times, where her musical career is measured against the intense intellectual and religious ferment of the post-revolutionary period and the ensuing years of Soviet repression. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Dedication CONTENTS PLATES ACRONYMS TRANSLITERATION INTRODUCTION 1 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH NEVEL’, PETROGRAD 2 1919–1927 BAPTISM, UNIVERSITY STUDIES, PHILOSOPHICAL CIRCLES 3 1921–1927 GRADUATION AND START OF A MUSICAL CAREER 4 1928–1933 LENINGRAD–MOSCOW VIA TBILISI 5 1933–1936 MOSCOW 6 1936–1941 THE MOSCOW CONSERVATOIRE AND MUSICAL PROJECTS 7 1941–1945 WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH 8 1945–1953 THE ANTI-FORMALIST AND ANTI-COSMOPOLITAN CAMPAIGNS 9 1953–1960 THE THAW YEARS 10 1960–1970 THE FINAL DECADE ENDNOTES APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INDEX