PLAYING WITH FIRE
‘Presents an absorbing picture of a tragic period of Russian history. At its centre is the towering figure of Maria Yudina, a remarkable pianist and one of the most influential personalities of Soviet cultural life. A riveting read.’
Boris Berman, Head of Piano, Yale University School of Music
‘The daughter of the British ambassador to the USSR and herself an ambassador for Russian music and musical culture, Elizabeth Wilson incorporates in her writing her own experience of living in Soviet Russia, studying at the Moscow Conservatory and encountering several generations of Russian musicians. It is surprising that such a book had not been written earlier; it is not surprising that it was eventually written by Wilson.’
Olga Manulkina, Saint Petersburg State University
Copyright © 2022 Elizabeth Wilson
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Daniel and to Radu, whose superlative music-making has enriched my life for over half a century
CONTENTS
List of 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
PLATES
1. Maria Yudina as newly appointed professor of Petrograd Conservatoire, 1922. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
2. Maria’s father, Veniamin Gavrilovich Yudin. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
3. Maria’s mother, Raisa Yakovlevna Yudina. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
4. Anna Yesipova. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
5. Bakhtin’s circle recreated in Leningrad, c.1924–6. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
6. Yudina at piano, late 1920s/early 1930s. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
7. Detail from The House Cut Open by Alisa Poret and Tatiana Glebova. Collection of Yaroslav Arts Museum.
8. Yudina in besieged Leningrad, summer 1943. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
9. Concert in wartime Moscow with conductor Nikolai Anosov at the Grand Hall of the Conservatoire, 8 June 1943. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
10. Poster for Yudina’s recital at the Grand Hall of the Philharmonia in besieged Leningrad, 3 October 1943. From collection of Musical Library of St Petersburg Academic Shostakovich Philharmonia.
11. Pencil drawing of Maria Yudina by Vladimir Favorsky, January 1949.
12. Yudina with Igor Stravinsky at the opening of an exhibition in his honour at the Leningrad House of Composers, 6 October 1962. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
13. Stravinsky receiving applause at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, September 1962. Photo taken by Khrennikov’s wife, Klara Vaks. In archival collection of RNMM (Glinka Museum) Moscow. Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture Russian National Museum of Music (без запятой).
14. Tikhon Khrennikov and Maria Yudina, autumn 1962. Photo taken by Khrennikov’s wife, Klara Vaks. In archival collection of RNMM (Glinka Museum) Moscow. Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture Russian National Museum of Music (без запятой).
15. Yudina’s desk-cum-dining table at her flat on Rostovskaya Embankment, 1967. Photo taken by Yakov Nazarov. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
16. Yudina reading from the Gospel at Pasternak’s grave on the 10th anniversary of his death, 30 May 1970. Collection of Yakov Nazarov.
ACRONYMS
ASM
(Assotsiatsiya Sovremennoi Muzyki) Association of Contemporary Music, 1923–9. Officially closed 1932.
BSO
(Bolshoi simfonicheski orkestr) Large Symphony Orchestra. The acronym for the All-Union Radio orchestra, previously known as Orkestr VRK (Orkestr Vsesoyuznyogo Radio komiteta), Orchestra of the All-Union Radio committee.
Cheka (ChK)
(Chrezvychainaya Komissiya po Bor’be s Kontrrevolyutsiei i Sabotazhem) The Extraordinary Commission to fight Counterrevolution and Sabotage. Established in December 1917, it was effectively the first Soviet secret police organisation.
DZZ
(Dom Zvukozapisei) The House of Sound Recordings. Between 1936 and 1958 it served both as a concert hall and a recording studio, where the first shellac records were made as well as most radio broadcasts. Taken over by Gosteleradio in 1958.
Glavrepertkom
(Glavniy Reportuarniy Komitet) Main Repertoire Committee. A censorship organisation (part of GlavLit) responsible for authorising theatre and concert performance repertoire.
ISCM
International Society for Contemporary Music. Founded in 1922 and still active today.
KGB
(Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti) Committee of State Security. Founded in 1954, it acted as successor to previous secret police organisation (Cheka, GPU; NKVD etc).
Komsomol
(Komunisticheski Soyuz Molodezhi) Communist Youth Union. Full name VLKSM, standing for All-Union Leninist Communist Youth League. Founded in 1918.
LASM
(Leningradskaya Assositsiatsiya Sovremennoi Muzyki) Leningrad Association of Contemporary Music. Active between 1925 and 1928.
MORS
(Mezhdunarodnyaya Organizatsiya Pomoshchi Bortsam Revolyutsii) International Organisation for Aid to Fighters for the Revolution. Yudina refers to MOPS, either a misprint or a subsidiary of MORS, usually known in English as International Red Aid, founded in 1922 with the aim to support both materially and morally political prisoners of all regimes and victims of class war.
Mossoviet
(Moskovskoi gorodskoi soviet) Moscow Town Council founded in 1917.
Muzfond SSSR