Maria Yudina has been enjoying more media attention of late. For an excellent and succinct account of Yudina's work, click here by Alexander Hanslick. Now a major new biography, written by Elizabeth Wilson, is published in hardback, and with a spiffing front cover.
This biography, completed during the pandemic years, is a great achievement. It chronicles in great detail the life and times of the Russian pianist noted for her uncompromising and heroic determination to perform, even in the face of a hostile political regime. Descriptions of her interactions with leading figures of her time, including Shostakovich, Pasternak, Stravinsky are interesting, although she seems to have alienated people more easily then attracting them.
Of most interest to pianists will be accounts of her playing: listen for example here to Holy Fool, a transciption by Kamensky of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.
What are the ingredients behind the persuasiveness of Yudina's playing? As Tolstoy said, there are only three important things in art: Sincerity, sincerity, and sincerity. Yudina had so little ego, she could tap the composer's own energy instead. She viewed music as a religious service. She held her own life to little account, and clearly performed as if her hair were on fire, as if it was the last day of her life. (Listen here to the opening of Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor). She can be compared to Blanche Selva, also religious and ego-less, a severe figure on and off stage, a disciple of d'Indy. Also to Maryla Jonas, a war-time refugee, who left a gripping account of Handel Passacaglia here Of the three, Yudina had by far the greater concert exposure, although her performances were almost all in the USSR, and only gradually is her vast discography being released worldwide.
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