Ruth Slenczynska: The Joy of Longevity
Anyone who knows me well is aware of my love for classical piano. Though I have absolutely no technical knowledge of music, I simply am overwhelmed with the sounds those keys produce. There is something so heavenly about notes that work together to produce a wordless story. What I often fail to appreciate is the work it takes to perfect such performances. A six minute nocturne could take a lifetime to master. Pianists spend years working toward a commanding grasp of the pieces they play.
Is there anything more unattractive to a microwaved age than the thought of incremental gains through tedious practice over decades? It seems many today are just fine settling for the convenience of cheap cocktails rather than the patience needed to produce aged wine. That is why it is crucial to champion those who have achieved greatness in their craft through the hard work of longevity. What is needed are models of passion that do not easily fizzle out and who exhibit a tenacity for their purpose which grows greater with age.
In that spirit, meet Ruth Slenczynska. At 97 years old, she is still one of the greatest classical pianists in the world. This month she has released a new album entitled, “My Life in Music.” Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Bach, and Barber flow from her fingers as she lays bare the pieces that have consumed much of her life and captured her heart. It is no small thing for an artist of her age to still be producing records with a major music label. It is easy to look at her body, worn with a century’s worth of life, and assume there is not much left to offer the world. How wrong we are! Personally, I was ashamed of how much I underestimated her the first time I watched her play Chopin. She is in her prime. Every performance stuffs 100 years of craft into just a few minutes. This is the fruit of a lifetime of sacrifice.
Yet this mastery did not come without a cost. It is not hyperbole to talk of Slenczynska playing the piano for nearly 100 years. Born in California on January 15th, 1925, her Polish parents quickly noticed Ruth’s talent and relocated to Europe in pursuit of opportunities for their young daughter to shine. She performed her first recital at four years old. She is thought to be one of the greatest child prodigies of the last 200 hundred years; the Washington Post described her as the greatest prodigy since Mozart. By the age of seven, Ruth had performed in Paris with a full orchestra. Her fame grew quickly and even landed her the privilege of learning under the great Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. The immediate rise to stardom placed great expectation on the young girl.
Ruth Slenczynska playing Beethoven at five years of age.
As incredible as Ruth’s quick rise to the top sounds, it was miserable behind the curtains. Her father became unbearable in his drive to make her succeed. She was forced to practice nine hours a day and even had to perform hours of piano perfectly before she was allowed to eat her first meal. In her autobiography which describes the dark side of her younger years, she unveiled the torment she endured:
Every time I made a mistake (while practicing), father leaned over and, very methodically, without a word, slapped me across the face ... If I slipped in the middle of the C major scale, I would have to start all over again. And for each slip a matter-of-fact slap, till, I suppose, I came to accept it as part of the natural order of things…Father was making me practice nine hours a day, every single day of the week. No mistake ever went unpunished. The moment I missed a note I got a whack across my cheek. If the mistake was bad enough, I was almost hurled bodily from the piano.
The bursting fame of being a master of the piano at such a young age robbed her of all childhood joy. She explains, “I was pushed very strongly by my father, who thought it was a way to make money. Really, I was never a child.” At the age of 15, Ruth could not bear such a lifestyle anymore. She left the stage and cut ties with her father in search of a new start.
11 years passed before she was ready to return to the concert stage. This time she played for the joy of the music rather than the pressure of performance. What followed were many records and decades of worldwide performances. Along with a renewed inspiration for the piano, Ruth found forgiveness in her heart for her father:
You see, I forgave my father a long time ago…Before Father died, I heard that he wasn't well, and even though I was a piano teacher making very little money, I rushed to Salt Lake City, where my parents were living, to visit him, to tell him that I forgave him…He wouldn't see me, but he told my mother that it was he who would have to forgive me. Deep down, though, I think he knew what he had done, and at least he knew that I had come to see him one last time.
Her skill, work ethic, and integrity has carried her to many heights over the years; 5 U.S. presidents have invited her to play for them including Herbert Hoover, John F Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Harry Truman. Slenczynska has trotted the globe playing the greatest pieces of classical piano for audiences great and small. Yet she recognizes how long it took to truly attain mastery of the piano. In speaking of her teacher Rachmaninoff, she remarks,
An instrumentalist wants to get the best out of his instrument, but a composer wants to put his musical ideas across. It is because of Mr. Rachmaninoff that I think about music from the composer’s angle. That means not worrying over details, like playing octaves correctly or using enough soft pedal, but focusing on the long line and what this music is telling you. At that point, you are a pianist, but it takes a long time. I always say you are not a real pianist until you are past the age of 60.
To really take hold of what it means to embody your craft, Slenczynska makes plain the fact that it will not come quickly. The ease and enjoyment of such a skill did not fully flower until she had spent much of her life sacrificing for it. May Slenczynska’s example be a lesson to all those who set out to be great at their chosen passion. But her wisdom does not end here. To those who master their craft, she wants to say, remember you are not the point. As a young student, Ruth recalls an encounter with another piano great, Samuel Barber, who explained to her, “Your duty is to show people how beautiful the music is, not how well you can play it.” In essence, her piano was not a tool to show off her greatness, rather it was she who was the tool which unveiled the greatness of the music. Her talent is in service of something greater than herself.
What strikes me so deeply is Slenczynska’s joy for life and her tenacity for serving people with her music. This won’t be found in her written words (as she is not a writer). It is in the fire she lights with her hands on the keys of a piano and the sweet words she dispenses in between her concert pieces. She is not slowing down in life. She is heating up. Her aim seems to be to go out with a bang, to press on in pursuit of gracing the world with the talent she has earned. Instead of fixating on what has been she puts into action what can be. When asked if she has any regrets, she says, “No…looking back doesn’t do any good. Look forward, and make that as beautiful as you can.” Her late years seem to be her most fruitful ones. May that be said of us all.
In honoring Ms. Slenczynska, I have no clue if she is a Chrisitan. The common grace God has dispensed through her life is enough to motivate me to live with a greater sense of duty and passion for longevity in serving the Lord. As I recently admired Ruth Slenczynska, I was reminded of an article John Piper penned a few years ago during the 2016 presidential election. In it, Piper explains the bizarre truth that three people in their 70s were passionate about taking on the most taxing post the world can offer:
At 70, I am energized to dream great things, because this year Hillary turns 69, Bernie turns 75, and Donald turns 70. My rising energy has nothing to do with their policies or character. It has to do with the incredible fact that all of them want to spend their seventies doing the hardest job in the world.
Regardless of these individuals' political backgrounds, each one was not looking to ease out of life with less and less responsibility. They were driven to make life count even in what is commonly known as “retirement age.” Piper goes on:
This is wonderfully counter-cultural. I doubt that it’s motivated by a passion to magnify the greatness of Jesus. But that makes it all the more inspiring for me, because nothing gets me more excited than spending my seventies spreading a passion for the glory of Christ and his word. Paul is still my hero when he says, “My eager expectation and hope is that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
Friends, whether it is presidential nominees or 97 year old Ruth Slenczynska, we must be convicted that if they can be inspired to sacrifice their comfort and time in old age for the nation or simply the common grace of playing beautiful music, then the gospel should inspire us to aim our whole lives at putting all we have into Christ’s service right up until it is time to take our last breath in this world. And we should see those years on the back half of life as potential for stepping into the fullness of God’s use of us rather than the time to bow out.
This doesn’t ignore the grace needed to preserve us as time catches up with our bodies, but it does place confidence in the fact that God is the Lord of our bodies even in old age. God says, “Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:4). When I see Ruth play the piano, the Lord provides a picture for my soul of an answer to the prayer of the psalmist, “My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent” (Psalm 71:8–9). I hope her music does the same for you. May Christ give us the spiritual legs for longevity and provide the grace needed to step into that fruitfulness when life gets long.
Ruth’s new album on Youtube.
A recent performance of Ruth’s can be found here.
Sources for this post:
The Guardian, “Ruth Slenczynska: the pupil of Rachmaninov still releasing music at 97”
The Financial Times, “Ruth Slenczynska, 97, on her nine-decade career at the piano”
Piano Files, “Celebrating Ruth Slenczynska”
The Washington Post, “Remembering Her Piano Lessons”
Desiring God, “Hillary, Bernie, Donald, and Me”