Ruth Slenczynskaâ¢SCHUMANN Ruth Slenczynska ... - Ivory Classics

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The Artist “She knows what she is doing every minute of the time. It is amazing!” – Josef Hofmann after hearing Ruth Slenczynska in her New York debut at Town Hall, 1933 Ruth Slenczynska was born in Sacramento, California on January 15, 1925. From the time she was two years old, Ruth’s musicianship was evident to all. She was able to recognize and hum (in the correct keys!) themes by Beethoven, Bach and Mozart. By the age of three, she had mastered the rudiments of music theory and harmony. She began her studies with her father, a violin teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, and gave her first public recital at the age of four, on May 10, 1929, at Mills College in Oakland. On Sunday, March 16, 1930, she gave a “farewell recital” at Erlanger’s Columbia Theatre in San Francisco. The program featured works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Grieg, C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven and Chopin. She was awarded a scholarship by Josef Hofmann to study at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and this concert by the five-year-old was her last appearance before commencing studies. Hofmann taught her to lean into the piano keys on the soft part of her fingers in order to produce the desired sound. Although she received a few lessons from Hofmann, because of his busy concert schedule, she actually studied with Madame Isabelle Vengerova. Her older classmates were Shura Cherkassky, Jorge Bolet and Samuel Barber. Despite this brief foray into a conservatory, Ruth’s father, Josef Slenczynski, remained her primary teacher. Bay Area socialites, rallied by violinist Mischa Elman, raised money for Ruth’s study abroad under such masters as Egon Petri, Artur Schnabel, Alfred Cortot and Sergei Rachmaninov. When she was six, long lines formed around the historic Bachsaal in Berlin for her German debut. The cabled report to The New York Times declared her to be “the most astounding of all prodigies heard in recent years on either side of the ocean.” After her Berlin concert, the German critics mounted the stage to examine the full-sized piano on which the legs and pedal mechanisms had been shortened to enable her to play. They were seeking some sort of concealed mechanism or wires to account for the undersized six-year-old’s ability to produce the glorious sounds she had just drawn from the instrument. Apologizing for their disbelief, they departed just as dumbfounded as the rest of the frenzied audience. On the evening of November 13, 1933, the eight-year-old Ruth trotted confidently from – 10 –
the wings of New York’s Town Hall, poised herself on the very edge of her piano seat and propelled a pair of tiny hands through an almost unbelievable performance of masterpieces by Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin. This was her New York debut. The next day, The New York Times declared the playing “an electrifying experience, full of the excitement and wonder of hearing what nature had produced in one of her most bounteous moods.” At nine she filled an entire cancelled tour of the immortal Ignacy Jan Paderewski; had her story serialized in 18 daily chapters syndicated to 500 leading American newspapers; swapped riddles with Herbert Hoover; received floral tributes from Queen Astrid of Belgium, Queen Marie of Ruth Slenczynska Romania, and King Christian X of Denmark; and earned more money than the President of the United States. Her musical career was to last another five years before she came to the heroic decision to withdraw from the concert stage. This was followed by a period of maturation, reassessment and personal growth. She worked at odd jobs to put herself through the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a degree in psychology. She then served as professor of music at the College of Our Lady of Mercy in Burlingame, California. Ruth Slenczynska returned to the concert stage at the Carmel Bach Festival in California in 1951. This appearance led to a performance with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops in San Francisco. Ruth was then invited to play in – 11 –
Page 1 and 2: Ruth Slenczynska•SCHUMANN CARNAVA
Page 3 and 4: Ruth Slenczynska, Pianist Original
Page 5 and 6: dual parts of Schumann’s personal
Page 7 and 8: of descriptive piano pieces bearing
Page 9: Voigt, the accommodating confidante
Page 13 and 14: Ivory Classics recording team after
Page 15 and 16: CREDITS l l l l l l l l Recorded at

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Ruth Slenczynskaâ¢SCHUMANN Ruth Slenczynska ... - Ivory Classics