Ruth Slenczynska: (1925-1940) Child Prodigy Years

Ruth Slenczynski (later changed to Slenczynska) was born on January 15, 1925 in Sacramento, California. From the earliest hours of her life, her father was determined to make her a musician. He started playing the violin for Ruth and recalled that she could hum the melodies by sixteen months of age. At age three, her father began teaching her music theory and how to play the piano; within a couple of months, she could play thirty-six scales. 

At age four, Ruth gave her first concert in Oakland, California. Josef Hofmann was in attendance and granted her a scholarship in his class at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She moved there with her father and met many influential people while studying at the Curtis Institute, such as lifelong friend Samuel Barber. Other notable connections include Efrem Zimbalist, Lea Luboshutz, Rose Bampton, Helen Jepson, and Marcella Sembrich.

While Hofmann was away on tour, pianist Isabelle Vengerova took over Ruth’s studies. However, Ruth returned to California soon after when her neighbors complained that she practiced too much.

Ruth Moves to Germany

When Ruth was five, the affluent Tobin family in San Francisco decided to fund her European education for three years. The funding came with one stipulation: during these years, Ruth was not allowed to perform any concerts.

Ruth and her family moved to Germany to study with pianist Egon Petri and Artur Schnabel. Ruth’s father decided to hold a concert in Berlin to look for a new teacher, despite the contract with the Tobins. Ruth played her debut concert in Berlin at the Bachsall on November 25, 1931 at the age of six. She played a second concert and tickets sold out overnight with a demand so high that 150 additional seats were set up on the stage. Amazed by her success, the Tobins continued to fund her education.

Ruth Moves to France

In February 1932, at age seven, Ruth’s family left Berlin for Paris and began instruction with Alfred Cortot. He taught her that what was printed on the page of a musical piece was the general outline, and the rest was up to the musician’s interpretation. He was the first instructor to put “fascination into playing the piano” for her.

Ruth’s first performance in Paris was with the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra in June 1932, and it was a success. A second concert followed in the fall.

Charles Wagner became Ruth’s manager in 1933 when she was eight. In November 1933, Ruth made her New York debut at the Town Hall and performed a few days later at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Critics raved about both of her performances; not long after, Ruth toured across America, returning to Paris three months later with $35,000.

In 1934, Ruth had a contract for thirty concerts and the promise of $75,000; that’s more than the President of the United States was making at the time. On January 27, 1934, Ruth performed at Carnegie Hall for the first time during a benefit for St. Mary’s Hospital Fund for Children where she played Mozart’s F-Major Sonata.

Ruth first saw Sergei Rachmaninoff play in Berlin when she was six. In the spring of 1934 at the age of nine, Rachmaninoff called Ruth’s father and told him to bring Ruth to his apartment. He was impressed with Ruth’s talent but said her technique still had a long way to go. Over the next few months, Ruth visited him every ten days on “social calls” and he would give her constructive criticism. Rachmaninoff thought that Ruth should stop appearing in public and devote her time to studying until she was fifteen. He warned her father that the consequences of doing otherwise could be disastrous; however, her father paid no mind to Rachmaninoff’s opinion and continued with the concerts.

Between ages nine and ten, Ruth traveled and performed in Denmark, Hungary, and England. She performed as a substitute for Lily Pons, Ignace Paderewski, and Rachmaninoff.

On January 19, 1936, at the age of eleven, Ruth was the guest artist at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She performed the solo in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with a cadenza written by herself. During that year, prominent instructor and music theorist Nadia Boulanger taught Ruth composition before Ruth toured in Portugal and Spain in June. When she returned, Boulanger was no longer living in France, so Ruth continued learning music theory from multiple instructors.

On February 26, 1937, at age twelve, Ruth made her British debut at Queen’s Hall in London. The crowd enjoyed Ruth’s performance so much, they wanted her to play longer. However, child performance laws prevented her from playing past 10 p.m.

The Hardships of Music

Ruth’s father controlled every aspect of her life. She could not play with toys as he feared they would injure her fingers, and she could only read stories about Mozart and Beethoven. Her father practiced piano with her for at least nine hours each day, taking breaks only to eat, nap, and perform other studies.  As she aged, he became more controlling and abusive, beating her or withholding meals if he was enraged by a mistake during practice or a performance. He also led the press to believe that he was Ruth’s sole piano teacher, revoking years of credit from her other instructors.

Once, when an English nobleman attended multiple stops on Ruth’s tour, he stated that Ruth’s interpretation of a Beethoven piece was beautiful. Her father insisted the interpretation was all his, to which the nobleman said, “But still she must feel something; otherwise it would be impossible for her to project…” and was promptly interrupted by Ruth’s father. “Young man,” he said, “there is only one thing in this world that counts and that is money, and I teach Ruth to play Beethoven because it brings in the dollars” (Slenczynska & Biancolli, 1958, p. 162).

At the age of twelve, Ruth’s attitude towards her father began to change. She realized that her playing seemed “immature” to critics because she played the way he wanted her to, not how her many instructors had taught her.

While on vacation at the age of thirteen or fourteen, Ruth admitted to a girl that she hated music and practicing. Somehow, Ruth’s father found out and beat her, leaving her severely bruised. After this incident, her mother offered to take her back to America and let her go to a normal high school, but Ruth insisted that she still needed to perform concerts.

Seeking her father’s approval, Ruth suggested that she might be more successful as a vocalist. He tried to train her voice the way that one would train a pianist, however, and her voice would crack in lessons from overuse. Her father would beat her afterwards, not realizing that the flaws in Ruth’s voice were because of his improper training.

At age fourteen, World War II broke out and her family headed back to America, ending her short-lived hopes of becoming a vocalist. Despite losing respect for her father, she resumed practicing piano for nine hours a day just to please him.

In 1940 at the age of fifteen, Ruth gave a concert at Town Hall in New York. She played how her father wanted her to, and the concert was not received well; critics described her as a “burned-out candle.”

After the concert, Ruth was taken to the hospital for appendicitis. She recalled in her book Forbidden Childhood, “At that moment he was everything in my life that stood for pain and misery and humiliation; he was the end of my music; my attack of appendix, my one and only enemy in the world. This was the end of our relationship. I had loved and worshiped and respected him. I had done everything to make him happy. I would have died to please him. I had nothing more to give. I was worthless, sick, and exhausted. I had been reduced to nothing, and I wanted no more of my father. That horrible gap never closed between us. It remained there to the end, black and unbridgeable” (Slenczynska & Biancolli, 1958, p. 182). After her hospital stay she no longer practiced the piano.

Globalization

Ruth’s musical career relates to music globalization because she studied music in many different countries—surrounded by a multitude of cultures—and was able to spread her artistry across the world. She was able to diversify her view on music through her various instructors—some emphasized technique while others emphasized phrasing and musicality. The way she played was influenced by the country she performed in; Germany, for example, had harsher critics and thus expected more of her. From the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia to studying across Europe, Ruth had many opportunities to embrace different styles of playing piano and the world embraced her right back.

Bibliography

Duchen, J. (2022, May 10). Pianist Ruth Slenczynska, 97, On Her Life In Music. uDiscover Music. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/classical-features/ruth-slenczynska-my-life-in-music/

Early closing law ends girl’s concert: London stops Ruth Slenczynski, 12, at 10 o’clock as audience clamors for more. (1937, Feb 27). New York Times. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/early-closing-law-ends-girls-concert/docview/102099137/se-2 

Girl pianist at opera concert. (1936, Jan 20). New York Times. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/girl-pianist-at-opera-concert/docview/101958784/se-2 

New wonder child astonishes Berlin: 6-year-old California pianist, Ruth Slenczynski, plays like seasoned artist. (1931, Nov 26). New York Times. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/new-wonder-child-astonishes-berlin/docview/99222983/se-2

Recital by prodigy for hospital fund: Many reservations made for benefit on Jan. 27 to be given by Ruth Slenczynski. (1934, Jan 15). New York Times. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/recital-prodigy-hospital-fund/docview/100982403/se-2

Slenczynska, R., & Biancolli, L. L. (1958). Forbidden childhood. Peter Davies.

Taubman, B. H. (1936, Jan 19). Prodigies: A study in genius: Yehudi Menuhin at nineteen and Ruth Slenczynski, turning eleven, give promise of carrying their remarkable talents into maturity. New York Times. https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/prodigies-study-genius/docview/101962950/se-2