Dmitri Shostakovich and Vladimir Sofronitsky were her classmates at the Petrograd Conservatory. She studied with Anna Yesipova and Felix Blumenfeld. And yet, I had not heard of Maria Yudina. Heinrich Neuhaus recommended her for a position on the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory, Sviatoslav Richter called her "immensely talented". Yet she was hidden behind Soviet Russia's iron curtain during her lifetime and was unknown to what is now a rapidly growing and wildly enthusiastic international audience.
Maria Yudina was a remarkable woman of unimaginable courage who knew her own mind and was not afraid to use it, or speak it. She once said while cleaning up after dinner, "I've got two enemies in this world - crumbs and the Soviet Power. I want to have heaven above my head." She was a passionate Christian; an advocate of modern Western music including the works of Bela Bartok, Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Igor Stravinsky, and les enfants terribles of the 1950s, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez; a supporter of modern Russian writers and poets; and an outspoken critic of the crushing political system under which she lived her entire adult life.
In his Memoirs, Dimitri Shostakovitch wrote that living under Soviet rule was like living in an insane asylum. On numerous occasions, Yudina was banned from public performance, relieved of her teaching positions, and forbidden to make recordings.
It is certain that because Stalin adored her playing, reportedly her playing would bring tears to his eyes, she suffered much less than she otherwise would have at the hands of one of history's most murderous tyrants. Even after she donated the money she received upon being awarded the Stalin Prize to the Russian Orthodox Church for "perpetual prayers for Stalin's sins", she was left relatively untouched.
She was most highly praised for her performances of the great German classics, her playing of
Bach
, which was anticipatory of Glenn Gould's approach,
Mozart
, and
Beethoven
. And while her interpretations of Romantic piano music were considered impressive, she was accused by Richter and others of not playing what was written in her performances of Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, and even Schubert. Who cares? It's beautiful playing. Listen to her performance of the Schubert Bb Major Sonata. Stylistically, it's all wrong, and I love it!
Happily, her admirers have made many of Maria Yudina's recordings available to us on YouTube. You can judge for yourselves.
Brahms Intermezzo Op 119 n°2
Brahms Intermezzo Op 119 n°3
Franz Joseph Haydn Sonata in E flat Major Hob XVI/52
i. Allegro
ii. Adagio
iii. Finale: Presto
Franz Liszt Variations on a Theme of Bach
Part I
Part II
Nikolai Medtner Piano Sonata "Triad" Op 11 (1906) Recorded in 1958
i. Allegro ma non troppo in Ab Major
ii. Sonata-Elegy. Andante Molto Espressivo in D minor
7 Bydlo 8 Promenade 9 Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells 10 Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuyle
11 The Marketplace at Limoges 12 Catacombae, Sepulchrum Romanum 13 Con Mortuis In Lingua Mortua
14 The Hut on Fowl's Legs 15 The Great Gate at Kiev
Schubert Impromptu in Ab Major Op 142 n°2
Sviatoslav Richter said of the following performance, "...but Schubert's B flat major Sonata, while arresting as an interpretation, was the exact opposite of what it should have been." I have read through this sonata and Yudina does things with it that are not in, or contra-indicated in the score. But they are awfully interesting things. Terrible, but great.
Schubert Piano Sonata in Bb Major D 960
ia. Molto moderato (beginning)
ib. Molto moderato (conclusion)
ii. Andante sostenuto
iii. Scherzo Allegro vivace con delicatezza iv. Allegro ma non troppo
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