My Life in Music Ruth Slenczynska

• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943):
• 1Rachmaninoff: 6 Romances, Op. 38: No. 3, Daisies03:24
• 2Rachmaninoff: 13 Preludes, Op. 32: No. 5 in G Major. Moderato03:29
• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981):
• 3Barber: Nocturne 'Homage to John Field', Op. 3304:54
• 4Barber: Fresh from West Chester: II. Let's Sit It Out, I'd Rather Watch05:01
• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849):
• 5Chopin: Grand valse brillante in E-Flat Major, Op. 18 (Ed. Paderewski)07:14
• 6Chopin: Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 5705:40
• Edvard Grieg (1843 - 1907):
• 7Grieg: Lyric Pieces, Op. 65: 6. Wedding Day at Troldhaugen08:23
• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918):
• 8Debussy: Préludes / Book 1, L. 117: No. 8, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair02:52
• Frédéric Chopin:
• 9Chopin: 12 Études, Op. 10: No. 3 in E Major (Ed. Paderewski)06:12
• 10Chopin: Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 4914:23
• 11Chopin: 24 Préludes, Op. 28: No. 23 in F Major. Moderato (Ed. Paderewski)02:00
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750):
• 12J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 84904:07
• Total Runtime01:07:39

Info for My Life in Music

Few pianists can claim such an extraordinary career and life as Ruth Slenczynska. She began performing in public at the age of 4, and, 92 years later, she is still playing. She studied with some of the 20th century's greatest pianists including Rachmaninoff, performed for Presidents Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan as well as Michelle Obama, and even played a duet with President Truman. For her new retrospective, My Life in Music, Slenczynska has chosen some of her favorite, most personal pieces.

Having recorded for the Decca Gold Label in the 1950s and 60s, the last living pupil of the great Russian composer-pianist Sergei Rachaminoff Ruth Slenczynska returns to the label nearly 60 years later to release a brand new solo piano album, recorded in 2021, entitled ‘My Life in Music’. The album celebrates her remarkable life and performing career which began as a child prodigy in the 1920s and continues nine decades later. Born in 1925 in Sacramento, California, to Polish immigrants, Slenczynska gave her concert debut at the age of four (just as the world entered the Great Depression), performed on television aged five and at six made her European concert debut in Berlin. 92 years later, the extraordinary pianist still performs to audiences around the world. As a child, Ruth Slenczynska was taught by some of the most celebrated pianists in history.

"My Life in Music" is inspired by Slenczynska’s personal connections with Rachmaninoff, as well as American composer Samuel Barber, who was her fellow student and friend. Slenczynska heard Barber’s now world-famous Adagio for Strings in the classroom, before it even had its title. Slenczynska also explores the music of Chopin throughout the new album, including a piece she performed at the memorial service of one of the greatest pianists of all time, Vladimir Horowitz, a life-long friend. Chopin’s music formed Slenczynska’s musical foundations, with her father making her play all 24 Études before breakfast every morning. Slenczynska went on to earn a reputation as one of the most celebrated Chopin interpreters. The album also features pieces by Debussy, Grieg and Bach which, for her, conjure memories of some of her great piano mentors: Egon Petri, Alfred Cortot and Josef Hoffman.

“The greatest piano genius since Mozart” (Oli Downes)

Ruth Slenczynska, piano

Ruth Slenczynska
was born in Sacramento, California on January 15, 1925. She gave her first professional recital at age four at Mills College in Oakland, California, playing Bach, Haydn, and Beethoven. Her father, Josef Slenczynski, was a Polish violinist who recognized his daughter's musical abilities when she could hum melodies back to him in perfect pitch at 16 months old. When she was three, he implemented a daily regime for her: nine hours of practicing interrupted briefly with tutoring in reading, writing, and geography.

As a child, she toured Europe and America and was labeled "The Miracle Child”. She performed in Berlin at age six, and the following year played in Paris accompanied by a full orchestra. When she was eight she made her debut in New York City, a concert a New York Times critic hailed as ''an electrifying experience, full of the excitements and the wonder of hearing what nature had produced in one of her most bounteous moods.''

Slenczynska played in Lynchburg on February 9, 1939 at the age of 14. The handbill advertising for her concert boasted, “since her New York debut, she has blazed a triumphant trail across the country and back with headlines that are rhapsodic eulogies. …Her dimpled, chubby hands with a span of one key above an octave, effortlessly encompass everything in piano literature with a gorgeous aplomb. …Yet there is nothing showy to this lovable, healthy Miss bubbling over with the joy of living, equally charming in womanly serenity or childlike simplicity.”

The emotional stress of endless practice and a heavy touring schedule forced her to withdraw from performing when she was 15. She later wrote that her father’s taxing demands on her as a child had been backed by physical and verbal abuse. She began to distance herself from her family, and after completing her high school education, she enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. Following her decision to search for her own path in college, her father never spoke to her again.

After a short engagement, Slenczynska married George Born in 1944, but the marriage only lasted ten years. Following her divorce she resumed her concert career, and later accepted a full-time position and the title Artist-in-Residence at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. In 1967 she remarried, this time to Dr. James Kerr, a fellow faculty member and professor of political science.

In 1957 Slenczynska published two books. One was a book of memoirs titled Forbidden Childhood, and it addressed what life as a child prodigy was like. Her second book concerned piano technique, and was titled Music at Your Fingertips: Aspects of Pianoforte Technique.

Following the resumption of her concert career in 1954, she has maintained an active musical life.

This album contains no booklet.