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Russian Archives: Maria Yudina Edition

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 8909

Barcode: 5029365890922

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 8

Release Date: 16th February 2009

This product has now been deleted. Information is for reference only.

Artists

Maria Yudina (piano)

Artists

Maria Yudina (piano)

About

Maria Yudina was born in 1899 and died in 1970. She studied with Frida Teitelbaum-Levinson, a pupil of Anton Rubinstein, and with Anna Esipova, a pupil of the great keyboard lion Theodor Leschetizky. Her studies included composition, conducting, organ, philosophy, languages and literature – augmenting all of this with extra studies with Felix Blumenthal, teacher of Vladimir Horowitz. She herself spent most of her life teaching. She was a persistent thorn in Stalin’s side – she is quoted as saying to him that she ‘would pray for his salvation’.

Banned from performing for five years for reciting Pasternak in place of giving encores, during the 1930s, she was forced to sleep rough in Moscow. She did, however, manage to escape the Gulags, and during the 1948 purges defended Shostakovich. For some reason Stalin turned a blind eye on her. Following the death of Stalin, she was permitted to tour ‘safe’ countries in the Eastern Bloc – often with Shostakovich. As a result of all this she remains an elusive figure in the history of pianists, absent altogether from Harold Schonberg’s respected ‘The Great Pianists’ of 1963.

This 8CD set is a unique opportunity to experience a great artist who suffered deprivation, and political and artistic repression. A fearless character and tenacious spirit can be heard in these recordings. Her repertoire ranged from her beloved Bach, to Bartok, Hindemith and Xenakis via the classical and Russian schools.

Few of her recordings remain available, so this release fills an important gap in the catalogue, and provides a fascinating insight of the life of an artist during the darkest years of the Soviet Union.

Contents:
CD 1:
Johann Sebastian Bach
- ? (11:32)
- Prelude & Fugue No.24 in B minor
- Prelude & Fugue No.20 in A minor
- Prelude & Fugue No.19 in A
- Prelude & Fugue No.23 in B
- Prelude & Fugue No.21 in B flat
- Prelude & Fugue No.22 in B flat minor
- Sonata? I. Adagio / II. Allegro / III. Adagio ma non tanto

Maria Yudina, piano · Marina Kozolupova, violin
Total: 65:41

CD 2:
Joseph Haydn
- Piano Sonata No.62 in E flat Hob.XVI:52
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- ‘Duport’ Variations in D K573
- Fantasia in D minor K397
Modest Mussorgsky
- Méditation (Album leaf for piano)
- Sleza (A Tear)
- Duma (Rêverie)
- Scherzo in C sharp minor

Total: 54:34

CD 3:
Johann Sebastian Bach/Franz Liszt
- Prelude & Fugue in A minor
Franz Liszt
- Variations on Bach’s ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen’
Ludwig van Beethoven
- Piano Sonata No.5 in C minor Op.10 No.1
- Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.111

Total: 68:29

CD 4:
Johannes Brahms
- Rhapsody in G minor Op.79 No.2
- Intermezzo Op.116 No.2: Andante
- Intermezzi Op.117: No.1: Andante moderato / No.2: Andante non troppo / No.3: Andante con moto
- Intermezzi Op.118: No.1: Allegro assai, ma molto appassionato / No.2: Andante teneramente / No.3: Grazioso e giocoso / No.4: Allegretto un poco agitato / No.6: Andante, largo e mesto
Franz Schubert
- Impromptu in E flat D899 No.2
- Impromptu in A flat D899 No.4
- Impromptu in A flat D935 No.2

Total: 53:05

CD 5:
Sergei Taneyev
- Piano Quartet in E Op.20
- Piano Quintet in G minor Op.30

Maria Yudina, piano
Beethoven Quartet:
Dmitri Tsyganov, Vassily Shirinsky, violins · Vadim Borisovsky, viola · Sergei Shirinsky, cello
Total: 76:49

CD 6:
Sergei Prokofiev
- Visions fugitives Op.22 (selection): Nos.1-13 / No.16 / No.19
- Cello Sonata in C Op.119
Claude Debussy
- Cello Sonata in D minor

Maria Yudina, piano
Lev Evgrafov, cello · Natalia Shakhovskaya, cello
Total: 56:47

CD 7:
Igor Stravinsky
- Concerto for piano & wind instruments
- Circus Polka for a Young Elephant
Witold Lutoslawski
- Variations on a Theme by Paganini
Karol Szymanowski
- 9 Preludes Op.1
- Variations in B flat minor Op.3

Maria Yudina, piano · Maria Drozdova, piano
USSR State Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra / Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Total: 59:19

CD 8:
Paul Hindemith
- Viola Sonata in F Op.11 No.4
Arthur Honegger
- Viola Sonata
Yuri Shaporin
- Piano Sonata No.2 in B minor Op.7
Bohuslav Martinu
- The Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon
- Les Bouquinistes du quai Malaquais
Andre Jolivet
- Mana (selection): La Chèvre / La Vache / La Princesse de Bali

Maria Yudina, piano · Fyodor Druzhinin, viola
Total: 67:53