The Lost Pianos of Siberia

22 September 2020

My children bought me this book as a Mother’s Day present. And last week the author, Sophy Roberts, gave an online talk about it via Pushkin House in London. It was completely riveting, hearing about the demands of travelling throughout Siberia in winter conditions, often to very remote areas. It was sad to think that making that kind of journey in current circumstances is just not possible. The other theme that came across was the generosity of the people Sophy met in the course of her search for pianos. (What a project!). How that resonates with those of us who love Russia.

Do look at the two videos embedded in the website lostpianosofsiberia.com, filmed by American photographer Michael Turek.  Make sure you have your sound turned on to hear the lovely Chopin Nocturne on the sound-track of the first one.

As a postscript – another book I acquired this week was an exhibition catalogue of images by Semyon Fridlyand, who worked as a press photographer in the Soviet Union from the 1930s to the early 1960s. More about him in a future blogpost, but, as I had been thinking about Russia and pianos, I was interested to find this picture – and its caption:

The piano was a symbol of class refinement and Europeanization. Location and date not given. 1950s?

From ‘On the Road in the Soviet Empire: Semyon Fridlyand Photographs’. Published by University of Denver, 2008