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Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin's Russia
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 postrevolutionary period and the ensuing years of Soviet repression.
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 postrevolutionary period and the ensuing years of Soviet repression.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published February 8, 2022
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About the author
Elizabeth Wilson
237 books13 followersElizabeth Wilson is a pioneer in the development of fashion studies, and has been a university professor, feminist campaigner and activist. Her writing career began in the ‘underground’ magazines of the early 1970s, (Frendz, Red Rag, Spare Rib, Come Together) before she became an academic. She's written for the Guardian and her non-fiction books include Adorned in Dreams (1985, 2003), The Sphinx in the City (1992) (shortlisted for the Manchester Odd Fellows Prize), Bohemians (2000) and Love Game (2014) (long listed for the William Hill sportswriting prize), as well as six crime novels, including War Damage (2009) and The Girl in Berlin (2012) (long listed for the Golden Dagger Award).
There is more than one author with this name in the database. This is the disambiguation profile for authors named Elizabeth Wilson.
There is more than one author with this name in the database. This is the disambiguation profile for authors named Elizabeth Wilson.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2022
Russia has always produced more than its fair share of remarkable women, and dissident pianist Maria Yudina (1899-1970) is certainly one of them. This meticulously researched, insightful and engaging biography explores her life and work in detail, and is the first such biography to be published. Maria Yudina was born Jewish but converted to Russian Orthodoxy when only 18 and was a fervent and devout believer ever after, with her faith informing her life and music. Fearlessly, she never tried to hide her beliefs, even though this was so dangerous during the Soviet period. Somehow she managed to escape Stalin’s purges, and it is said that she was his favourite pianist, which may explain how she managed to survive. She was highly acclaimed in the Soviet Union but little known outside it. Hers was an extraordinary life and an extraordinary talent. I’d never heard of her, and really enjoyed discovering her in this enjoyable and informative book.
March 28, 2023
3.5 stars. A comprehensive, well-researched biography with the information that remains of Maria Yudina's life, and a very good fact=checker to debunk the myths that have swirled around her (thanks, Armando Iannucci!). Elizabeth Wilson is clearly very passionate about Yudina as an artist and a person, but sometimes this enthusiasm translates into exclamation points to drive home the more outrageous facets of her life in Soviet Russia without footnotes to back them up (the rest of the book is very well sourced, with a meticulous bibliography).
It would be interesting to have zoomed out a little bit and looked at more of the artists she interacted with and artistic/cultural/religious circles she moved in, especially considering her Jewish family, staunch conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, and the persecution both groups faced under various Soviet purges (which translated into the way she was often talked about, which isn't fully unpacked through modern sensibilities...). It's also clear that her contemporaries had vastly varied opinions of her - often high thoughts of the artist, mixed views on the woman and her comportment. Maybe there's a wider world to connect with here, but I'm very glad I got such a thorough introduction to an extraordinary pianist.
It would be interesting to have zoomed out a little bit and looked at more of the artists she interacted with and artistic/cultural/religious circles she moved in, especially considering her Jewish family, staunch conversion to Russian Orthodoxy, and the persecution both groups faced under various Soviet purges (which translated into the way she was often talked about, which isn't fully unpacked through modern sensibilities...). It's also clear that her contemporaries had vastly varied opinions of her - often high thoughts of the artist, mixed views on the woman and her comportment. Maybe there's a wider world to connect with here, but I'm very glad I got such a thorough introduction to an extraordinary pianist.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews