Ruth Slenczynska “The Legacy of a Genius” • Music by Bach, Liszt, and Chopin/Liszt the Artist “She Knows What She Is Doing Every Minute of the Time

uth lenczynska Historic Performances of Bach, Liszt and Chopin/Liszt Ruth Slenczynska “The Legacy of a Genius” • Music by Bach, Liszt, and Chopin/Liszt 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 rudi- ments 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 fea- tured 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. Ruth Slenczynska, age 11, in 1936 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. – 2 – Despite this brief foray into a conservatory, Ruth’s father, Josef Slenczynski, remained her primary teacher. He was incessantly pushing the child, determined to make her the finest pianist in the world. She was awakened at six o’clock every morning to begin practicing in her nightgown, in often icy- cold temperatures and before breakfast. She eventually practiced at least nine hours a day. His reg- imen was quite simple and direct – every mistake earned a slap across her cheek; more serious infractions or any sign of rebellion were punished by denied meals. In fact, each meal she ate was treated as a reward. Until she reached her teen years Ruth Slenczynska practiced in her petticoat, no matter who might be present, so as not to spoil her dresses with perspiration. Those difficult years were eventually chronicled by her in the poignant book, Forbidden Childhood, which she wrote in collaboration with Louis Biancolli. Bay Area socialites, rallied by violinist Mischa Elman, raised money for Slenczynska’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 pedal mechanism had been raised to enable her to reach them. They, obviously, 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 Slenczynska trotted confident- ly from 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 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. – 3 – In Forbidden Childhood, Slenczynska con- fides that she had to get away from her Svengali- like father who had pocketed her earnings and totally dominated her life and career. She had to work 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. Miss Slenczynska was then invited to play in Boston and was also asked to go on tour with the Boston Pops that following winter. The tour would require her to perform with the orchestra for a three-month period, performing every night, and twice-a-day on Saturdays and Sundays. The gruelling schedule would require that she travel every day by bus between concert venues. Nervous about forsaking her teaching Ruth, age 10, returns to America with her father, Josef, in 1935 to begin her American tour position at the College of Our Lady of Mercy, she sought the advice of Artur Rubinstein in Los Angeles. Rubinstein encouraged her to pursue the Boston Pops invitation. The first year of touring led to three more years with the Boston Pops. During that period she gave more than 360 performances with the orchestra — a record number of appearances by one artist with an orchestra! In 1956 she performed the Chopin F Minor Concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos at Carnegie Hall. Mitropoulos, who had conducted her appearance with the Minneapolis Orchestra when she was twelve, considered this 1956 engagement as the “discov- ery of a brilliant new artist on the threshold of a great career ahead.” He inscribed a photograph to her: “To a great pianist and musician.” In May of that year, some 35 million television viewers watched and listened with amazement as Ralph Edwards applied his unique “This Is Your Life” – 4 – formula to Ruth Slenczynska’s stranger-than-fiction real life story. Six months later it was set forth again, when the “best-of” “This Is Your Life” was highlighted on Arlene Francis’ coast-to-coast NBC “Home Show.” Also in 1956, her profile, sculpted by famed artist Malvina Hoffman, was des- ignated as the symbol of achievement for the 1956 Kimber Award in Instrumental Music of the San Francisco Foundation. Delta Omicron, the International Music Fraternity founded in 1909, elect- ed her to national honorary membership, conferring the title “musician who has attained out- standing recognition in the field of music.” In 1958, on the evening of November 13th, she returned to Town Hall to celebrate her Silver Jubilee. That same year she crossed the country, playing in 56 cities, in 20 different states, with appearances with six major symphony orchestras. In 1961, when the San Francisco Symphony was celebrating its Golden Anniversary Season, she was invited to perform the Khachaturian piano concerto with the 25-year-old Seiji Ozawa conducting. She has performed more than 3000 recitals on both hemispheres and appeared with most of the world’s greatest orchestras. In 1984 she returned to New York’s Town Hall in celebration of over 50 years on the concert stage. The New York Times crit- ic, John Rockwell wrote: “unlike too many machine-tooled young virtuosos today, Miss Slenczynska brought an appealing lyricism and musicality to her interpretations... her technique remains a com- manding one.” Although in 1985 she returned to the far eastern countries of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and the first visits to China and New Zealand, performing 115 concerts, she has pared back her concert schedule as follows: “Every three years I play internationally – between fifty and sixty concerts. Every year I play between twenty-five and thirty concerts and workshops all over the United States.” Although she retired from the concert stage at the age of 70, she still maintains an active teaching schedule, conducting workshops and leading master classes. She continues to teach at Southern Illinois University, where she takes a working interest in piano students from all over the world. Ruth Slenczynska is married to political science professor James Richard Kerr. They are avid gardeners and dog lovers and collect art from all over the world. The Music “Music is a living language, more eloquent than any spoken tongue. The performer is the translator, the interpreter.” – Ruth Slenczynska, Music at your Fingertips (1961) The music of Johann Sebastian Bach always occupied an enormously important place in Ruth Slenczynska’s concert programs. Her earliest programs from 1929/30 began with a prelude and – 5 – fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier and a group of Two-Part Inventions. At her New York Town Hall debut in 1933 she performed the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and twelve days later at the same venue she opened her recital with three preludes and fugues followed by the Italian Concerto. So, it is not sur- prising that Bach’s music was her choice for her first full-length long-playing recording. Recorded forty-seven years ago in San Francisco, the Bach works were meticulously re-mastered from the original recordings on the Music Library label. Now, available for the very first time on compact disc, this is the first release in a series devoted to Ms. Slenczynska’s performances. Bach’s Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971 first appeared in the second volume of his Clavierübung, published in 1735. Bach describes the work as “A Concerto after the Ruth Slenczynska in 1952 Italian Taste... Composed for music lovers, to refresh their spirits.” According to Bach biog- rapher, Philipp Spitta, the work “summarizes the whole history and character of the Bach instrumental concertos.” The opening Allegro and closing Presto are in essence imitations of a solo concer- to with orchestral accompaniment. The second movement, Andante, is like a violin solo, embellished with beautiful ornaments and decorations over a persistently steady bass. When performed on a harpsichord with two manuals, the Italian Concerto becomes a multi-faceted work where the dynam- ic levels and various changes in tonal quality are clearly evident. Since the piano is free rather than fixed in dynamics and has no differing registers of tonal color, the pianist must generate similar effects by touch, clarity and virtuosity of interpretation. This is exactly what Ruth Slenczynska accomplishes – she provides a pianistic crispness that is simply astonishing, clearly delineating soli from tutti, and imbuing the expressive second movement with a brooding, serious darker tonality. It is a performance of enormous energy, tonal clarity, with an astonishing independence of hands. – 6 – The Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, BWV 903 is without a doubt one the great works of keyboard literature. English music scholar, composer and pianist, Sir Donald Francis Tovey, describes it as “the purest cloud-scape in the world of harmony, without even a flight of birds to show the scale of its mighty perspective.” Ruth Slenczynska performed this work at the age of eight on her program at her New York debut at Town Hall on November 13, 1933. In his review of her recital for the New York Herald Tribune, Jerome Bohm wrote: “It was moving to hear how much Bach’s introspective genius already had disclosed itself to her imagination.” She opened her 1951 concert in bombed-out Cologne with this Bach masterpiece. Remembering that memorable 1951 concert she stated that the Bach work “filled the empty hearts with something precious and per- sonal.” This is the recording she made shortly after returning the United States. In an article that appeared in the November 1958 issue of the Musical Courier, she admitted, “It was in the soft opening measures of the Fugue that I believe I first became an artist. I was saying things of my own and saying them with conviction... I had found my true self at last.” That year for her Silver Jubilee concert at Town Hall, she once again programmed it. Bach composed his Toccata in C minor, BWV 911 in Weimar between 1708 and 1717. According to Karl Geiringer, “The introduction and the adagio conjure a mood of lament and long- ing. The atmosphere changes with the beginning of the fugue, a masterpiece both in structure and substance. We are carried away by its irresistible strains, which Philipp Spitta compares to “a proud and handsome youth, swimming on the full tide of life, and never weary of the delightful con- sciousness of strength.” The fugal work is momentarily interrupted after 48 bars by an outburst of runs recalling a toccata beginning, whereupon Bach introduces a second subject and proceeds to erect a splendid double fugue. Quite stirring is the mighty ending in an adagio passage rising toward a fortissimo chord and then quickly fading away in the bass.” According to Philipp Spitta, Bach composed his Sonata in D Major, BWV 963 in 1704, when the composer was 19 years old. It is one of the few keyboard works of Bach for which the term “sonata” is employed. According to the notes written by Alfred Frankenstein for Ruth Slenczynska’s original long-playing disc, “It is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, connected by short, recitative- like bridge passages. Both the slow movement and the finale are fugues; the subject of the finale is described on the manuscript as A Thema all Imitatio Gallina Cucca (Theme in imitation of a cack- ling hen). The first movement is distinctly less polyphonic than is common with this composer, and Philipp Spitta, who has written more about this sonata than other Bach authorities, declares it to be “so totally unlike what we regard as characteristic of Bach than no one who should meet with it apart from the movements that follow could guess that he was its composer.’” According to – 7 – On May 30, 1956, the dramatic story of Ruth Slenczynska’s life was brought to the attention of viewers coast-to-coast by Ralph Edwards (left), who chose the pianist as “principal subject” for his “This Is Your Life” series. At the conclusion of the show, Miss Slenczynska is surrounded by members of her family and musical notables who participated in the recounting of her life story. Standing behind the pianist, left to right: her sister, Mrs. Helen Lee; famed violinist Mischa Elman, who obtained the financing for Miss Slenczynska’s childhood piano studies in Europe; another sister, Mrs. Georgia Vickers; Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, with whom Miss Slenczynska has made four transcontinental concert tours; and Robert Vetlesen, head of the San Francisco Academy of Music, who launched her comeback in 1951. Seated beside Miss Slenczynska is her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Figen. Frankenstein, Slenczynska’s recording of this sonata was the first one on disc. Fryderyk Chopin’s Polish Melodies, Opus 74, are without doubt the least known of the composer’s works. Composed between 1828 and 1845 and collected posthumously, they are compositions of a lifetime – the product of continuing inspiration, and the reflection of Chopin’s very soul. Among Liszt’s song transcriptions are six by Chopin. They are some of Liszt’s most popular and endearing – 8 – transcriptions. They were created by Liszt during a period of thirteen years, from 1847 to 1860 and dedicated to the Princess Marie von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (also known as Princess Marie von Sayn-Wittgenstein, daughter of Princess Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein). The first song in the cycle is Zyczenie (“Mädchens Wünsch”, “The Maiden’s Wish”), Opus 74, No.1. Composed by Chopin in 1829 to a poem by S. Witwicki, it is the most often performed of the set. With its mazurka rhythm, simple, singable melody, and facetious gaiety, it pays homage to beauty, love and feminine coquetry. The second song, Wiosna (“Frühling”, “Spring”) was composed by Chopin in 1838 and is a lament of one who wanders through a pleasant valley only to be reminded by its beauty of a beloved person who is dead. It was published as the second song in Chopin’s Opus 74. Pierscien (“Das Ringlein”, “The Ring”), Opus 74, No.14, was written by Chopin in 1836 and has to do with a young man who discovers his ring still on a young woman’s finger, although she has turned him down and married someone else. Hulanka (“Merrymaking”), Opus 74, No.4, is an ode to love and wine, and the fifth song transcription, Moja pieszczotka (“Meine Freuden”, “My Joys”), Opus 74, No.12, is a sheer lyrical outpouring of virile expressions of love: not only is she the most beautiful, but a look from her is enough to set one aflame. The lover cannot resist the pleasure of taking her in his arms and wildly kissing her... to a mazurka rhythm. Ruth Slenczynska’s performance is particularly interesting, since she adds a cadenza-like ending, and also makes additional embellishments throughout the work. She heard “My Joys” on a Welte-Mignon piano roll in a performance by Bernhard Stavenhagen (1862-1914). This extraordinary piano roll by one of Liszt’s most brilliant students left an indelible impression on the young Ruth, who copied out the embellishments and the concluding cadenza and incorporated these changes to Liszt’s transcription in all her performances. Narzeczony (“Die Heimkehr”, “Homeward”), Opus 74, No.15, is a picture of a man on horseback riding through a snow-swept forest, not knowing that his beloved is dead and that she will meet him in her winding-sheet. Ruth Slenczynska was the first pianist to record all six of the Liszt transcriptions. She made a second recording of these works a decade later for Decca records. The six short pieces which Liszt published in 1850 under the title Consolations had a literary inspiration. According to scholars, Liszt was familiar with the volume of poetry entitled Consolations by historian and poet Joseph Delorme (pseudonym for Charles Sainte-Beuve [1804-1869]), which Liszt read shortly after its publication in 1830. Although Liszt began the set in the first half of the 1840s, it was not until the first half of 1849 that the ideas came to fruition. In these pieces, Liszt achieved a precious cultivated elegance, choosing to write music simply to serve the melodic mate- rial. The Consolation No. 1 in E Major is the shortest of the set, a pensive Andante con moto, and – 9 – according to Alfred Cortot, “it does not announce an idea but creates an atmosphere...and tends less to provide consolation and more to register its effects.” Liszt conceived the Hungarian Rhapsodies, as a kind of collective national epic. He composed the first in 1846 at the age of 35, and his last in 1885 at the age of 74. Most of his Hungarian Rhapsodies are in the sectional slow-fast form of the Gypsy dance known as the czardas, but the fifteenth is not. The Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 in A minor is sub- titled “Rákóczy March”. This same Rákóczy March was orchestrated by Berlioz and incorporated by him into his Damnation of Faust. The actual march was originally written by an obscure musician named Michael Barna, in honor of Prince Francis Rákóczy, the historic hero of Hungarian nationalism and fiery nobleman who led the revolt against Austria in the early 1700s. It has long since become

Ruth Slenczynska today the national march of Hungary and a symbol of freedom and national pride. For Ruth Slenczynska, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 holds a particular poignancy. She performed the work in 1937 (at the age of 12) in Budapest. Her performance of this piece won her not only a standing ovation but also a laurel wreath of silver leaves with red and white streamers. When World War II put an end to Ruth’s concertizing in Europe, the wreath accompanied her back home to California. While other cherished mementoes of Miss Slenczynska’s round-the-world prodigy triumphs were all sold or destroyed by her father in the bitter years that followed, somehow the wreath alone sur- vived. When Ruth Slenczynska returned to Town Hall for her Silver Jubilee concert in 1958, she concluded her program with Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.15.

Original Producer: Earl Walker Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis High Resolution Digital Remastering: Ed Thompson and Glenn Meadows at Masterfonics, Nashville ® encoding provided by Doug Beard and Tom Jenny of Data CD, Inc.

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Inside Tray Card: Ruth Slenczynska, 8 years old in 1933

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– 11 – uth lenczynska The Legacy of a Genius Music by Bach, Liszt, and Chopin/Liszt

Bach: Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971 12:50 Chopin/Liszt: Six Chants Polonais (S480/R145) from 1 I. (Allegro) 3:43 “Seventeen Polish Songs,” Opus 74, by Chopin 16:35 2 II. Andante 5:44 9 I. Mädchens Wunsch (The Maiden’s Wish) 3:33 3 III. Presto 3:23 10 II. Frühling (Spring) 2:38 Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, 11 III. Das Ringlein (The Ring) 1:38 BWV 903 13:01 12 IV. Bacchanal (Merrymaking) 2:03 4 I. Fantasia 8:45 13 V. Mein Freuden (My Joys) 5:08 5 II. Fuga 4:16 14 VI. Die Heimkehr (Homeward) 1:35 Bach: Toccata in C minor, BWV 911 Liszt: Consolation No.1 in E Major (from S172/R12) 6 Introduction – Largo – Fugue 10:46 15 Andante con moto 1:26 Bach: Sonata in D Major, BWV 963 8:42 Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 in A minor 7 Allegro 2:22 (“Rákóczy March”) (from S244/R106) 8 Fugato – Adagio – Presto – Allegro: 16 Allegro animato – Tempo di marcia animato 4:31 Fuga na Thema all imitatio Gallina Cucca 6:18 Total Playing Time: 68:39

Remastering Producer: Michael Rolland Davis High Resolution Digital Remastering: Ed Thompson & Glenn Meadows, Masterfonics, Nashville

Columbus, Ohio 43234-1068 U.S.A. ® Phone: 1-888-40-IVORY • [email protected] Website: http://www.IvoryClassics.com