Ruth Slenczynska - My Life In Music - Decca: 4852255 - CD or download

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The immediacy of the past is made clear in the album’s accompanying notes – Slenczynska wears, to this day, a necklace given to her by her teacher Sergei Rachmaninov. And yet the album is far... — David Smith, Presto Music, 18th March 2022 More…

Release Date: 18th Mar 2022
Catalogue No: 4852255
Label: Decca
Length: 67 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

18th March 2022

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Excerpt, Rachmaninoff: Songs (6), Op. 38

Work length3:24

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

No. 3, Daisies

Track length3:24

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Excerpt, Rachmaninoff: Preludes Op. 32 Nos. 1-13

Work length3:29

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

No. 5 in G Major. Moderato

Track length3:29

$1.10

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Barber: Nocturne 'Homage to John Field', Op. 33

Work length4:53

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

Barber: Fresh from West Chester

Work length5:01

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

II. Let's Sit It Out, I'd Rather Watch

Track length5:01

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Chopin: Grand valse brillante in E-Flat Major, Op. 18 (Ed. Paderewski)

Work length7:13

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

Chopin: Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57

Work length5:39

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

Excerpt, Grieg: Lyric Pieces VIII (6), Op. 65

Work length8:23

$1.10

$1.50

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Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

6. Wedding Day at Troldhaugen

Track length8:23

$1.10

$1.50

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Excerpt, Debussy: Préludes - Book 1

Work length2:52

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

No. 8, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair

Track length2:52

$1.10

$1.50

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Excerpt, Chopin: Études (12), Op. 10

Work length6:12

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

No. 3 in E Major (Ed. Paderewski)

Track length6:12

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Chopin: Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49

Work length14:23

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

Excerpt, Chopin: Preludes (24), Op. 28

Work length2:00

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

No. 23 in F Major. Moderato (Ed. Paderewski)

Track length2:00

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Bach, J S: Prelude and Fugue in C Sharp, BWV 848

Work length4:07

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Ruth Slenczynska (piano)
Recorded: 2021-06-14
Recording Venue: The DiMenna Center, Cary Hall, New York

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Recording of the Week, Ruth Slenczynska and a Life in Music

18th March 2022

The pianist's return to the recording studio at the age of 97 offers us a bridge to the bygone era of composers and virtuosos who shaped her career.

“The greatest piano genius since Mozart” – Oli Downes

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.

Reviews

18th March 2022

The immediacy of the past is made clear in the album’s accompanying notes – Slenczynska wears, to this day, a necklace given to her by her teacher Sergei Rachmaninov. And yet the album is far more than merely a means for us to feel nearer to the past; in just sixty-eight minutes of music Ruth Slenczynska shows herself to be a musician as sensitive and thoughtful today as she was in 1956 at the outset of her recording career.

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Recording of the Week, Ruth Slenczynska and a Life in Music

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