Description
| Product ID: | 9780300253931 |
| Product Form: | Hardback |
| Country of Manufacture: | US |
| Title: | Playing with Fire |
| Subtitle: | The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin's Russia |
| Authors: | Author: Elizabeth Wilson |
| Page Count: | 352 |
| Subjects: | Composers and songwriters, Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, Biography: general, Biography: arts and entertainment, General and world history, History of other geographical groupings and regions, History, Gender studies: women and girls, Biography: general, Biography: arts & entertainment, General & world history, History of other lands, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Gender studies: women, Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe), Russia, 20th century |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating The first full biography of the fearless and brilliant Maria Yudina, a legendary pianist who was central to Russian intellectual life “Playing with Fire is a ground-breaking work—a phenomenal biography of a towering human spirit of everlasting relevance.”—Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal Maria Yudina was no ordinary musician. An incredibly popular pianist, she lived on the fringes of Soviet society and had close friendships with such towering figures as Boris Pasternak, Pavel Florensky, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Legend has it that she was Stalin’s favorite pianist. Yudina was at the height of her fame during WWII, broadcasting almost daily on the radio, playing concerts for the wounded and troops in hospitals and on submarines, and performing for the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. By the last years of her life, she had been dismissed for ideological reasons from the three institutions where she taught. And yet, according to Shostakovich, Yudina remained “a special case. . . . The ocean was only knee-deep for her.” In this engaging biography, Elizabeth Wilson sets Yudina’s extraordinary life within the context of her times, where her musical career is measured against the intense intellectual and religious ferment of the postrevolutionary period and the ensuing years of Soviet repression. |
| Imprint Name: | Yale University Press |
| Publisher Name: | Yale University Press |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2022-02-08 |