This week, the performer and author Elizabeth Wilson speaks to Artemis from the offices of Yale University Press in Bedford Square. Elizabeth tells us about the early life of a remarkable pianist, Maria Yudina, who rose to fame in Stalin’s Russia.

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Maria Yudina was born in 1899 to a Jewish family in Nevel, a small town which now sits close to Russia’s border with Belarus. Legend has it that Maria was Stalin’s favourite pianist. Those who have seen Armando Iannucci’s satirical film The Death of Stalin may remember the opening scene in which a pianist is forced to repeat her live performance so that a recording can be made of it and sent to Stalin. As Elizabeth explains in her new biography of the musician, Playing with Fire, the provenance of this story and whether it is about Maria is unclear. However, there is no shortage of fascinating and true stories about Maria, as Elizabeth shows us in this conversation.

Maria came of age as the February revolution broke out in St Petersburg, where she was studying music. She took part briefly – even accidentally firing a rifle through a ceiling – before being questioned by a teacher from the conservatoire where she was studying. For most of her life though, Maria wasn’t a revolutionary but an intellectual. Her social circle was made up of the leading figures of Russia’s intelligentsia, including Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin. 

In this episode we visit Maria in 1921, the year she graduated from the conservatoire and was appointed as a member of staff aged just 21. It was also a year in which the relationship between Russia’s new revolutionary state and the country’s artists and intellectuals felt uneasy and, at times, destructive.

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Elizabeth Wilson’s latest book Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin's Russia is out now.

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Show notes:

Scene One: Maria’s graduation ceremony.

Scene Two: Maria’s debut performance in Petrograd, which coincides with the poet Alexander Blok’s death and funeral. 

Scene Three: The end of the civil war and the introduction of NEP.

Memento: A chess set which shows pieces representing two sides of the Russian Civil War. 

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Presenter: Artemis Irvine

Guest: Elizabeth Wilson

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours

Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan

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About Elizabeth Wilson

Elizabeth Wilson is a performer, teacher, and writer. She studied cello at the Moscow Conservatoire with Mstislav Rostropovich and is the author of biographies of Dmitri Shostakovich, Jacqueline du Pre, and Mstislav Rostropovich.

Maria Yudina plays Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 K.466 via YouTube

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