Sonate Harder
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What I'm working on:Bach, BWV 798, 3-part invention #12 in A
Beethoven, Sonatina in G, Op. 79 (1st mvmt)
Ravel, Menuet from Tombeau de Couperin
The Concert by Gerard ter Borch the Younger, 1655 the Netherlands, Gemäldegalerie
Maria Yudina plays Beethoven Sonata No. 14 , Op. 27, No. 2 “Moonlight” (2/2) (by truecrypt)
Maria Yudina plays Mozart Concerto No. 23 in A Major (2/3) (by truecrypt)
From Wikipedia:
Yudina has the distinction of being Joseph Stalin’s favorite pianist. One night, Stalin heard a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 on the radio performed by Yudina and asked for a copy. It was a live broadcast so officials woke up Yudina, drove her to a recording studio where a small orchestra had quickly been assembled, and made her record the concerto in the middle of the night, a single copy was pressed from the matrix and then presented to Stalin (the matrix has survived and the recording has been available on CD). It is said that he broke out in tears after hearing only the first notes of Yudina’s playing. Despite the recognition from Stalin the pianist remained an uncompromising critic of the Stalinist regime with unprecedented impunity. She was awarded the Stalin Prize and donated its monetary portion to the Orthodox Church for “perpetual prayers for Stalin’s sins”. She died in Moscow in 1970.
