I recently acquired Maria Yudina's recordings of Bach's Goldberg
Variations, and Beethoven's Diabelli and Eroica Variations, all on the
Philips Great Pianists Series.  I'm glad to report that I'm enjoying them
tremendously.  What inspiring readings!  (even if the reading on the whole
is rather personal.) To me, her Diabelli only confirms how overrated
Schnabel is as a Beethoven interpreter, whose Diabelli is also on his
Philips GP title, which I just heard several days back.  And her Goldbergs
show that one can be individual without having to sound wayward, as in the
case of Glenn Gould, whose playing is really something of an acquired
taste.

I strongly recommend her Philips set!

Just curious:  The liner notes mention that Yudina was not one who was
into sweet-talking and pleasing the political dictators of her time, and
also mentions that she was a champion of Shostakovich's music.

I might be wrong, but I thought I came across somewhere (possibly on this
List or maybe somewhere else in cyberspace) that like Goldenweiser, Yudina
was amongst those who at some point joined the Stalinist camp and denounced
and censured composers like Shostakovich and Prokofiev, either out of
necessity or their own volition (I can't remember which).  Anyone know
anything about this?

Thanks in advance.

Lionel Choi
Singapore
http://www.singnet.com.sg/~lionelc/dummies.html