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 ambas- sador 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 i ii PLAYI N G WITH FI R E The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia ELIZABETH WILSON YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON iii Copyright © 2022 Elizabeth Wilson All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. All reasonable efforts have been made to provide accurate sources for all images that appear in this book. Any discrepancies or omissions will be rectified in future editions. For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: U.S. Office: [email protected] yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected] yalebooks.co.uk Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by TJ Books, Padstow, Cornwall Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948939 e-ISBN 978-0-300-26568-2 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 iv To Daniel and to Radu, whose superlative music-making has enriched my life for over half a century v vi CONTENTS List of Plates viii Acronyms x Transliteration xiv Introduction 1 1 Childhood and Youth: Nevel’, Petrograd 6 2 1919–1927: Baptism, University Studies, 29 Philosophical Circles 3 1921–1927: Graduation and Start of a Musical Career 56 4 1928–1933: Leningrad–Moscow via Tbilisi 85 5 1933–1936: Moscow 113 6 1936–1941: The Moscow Conservatoire and 140 Musical Projects 7 1941–1945: War and its Aftermath 166 8 1945–1953: The Anti-Formalist and 191 Anti-Cosmopolitan Campaigns 9 1953–1960: The Thaw Years 218 10 1960–1970: The Final Decade 250 Endnotes 283 Appendix 300 Bibliography 306 Selected Discography 315 Acknowledgements 320 Index 324 vii 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. viii PLATES 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 anni- versary of his death, 30 May 1970. Collection of Yakov Nazarov. ix