< At 97, Pianist Ruth Slenczynska has a new album — and plenty of stories

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

It's not every day that a 97-year-old releases a new album.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "LYRIC PIECES, OP. 65: 6. WEDDING DAY AT TROLDHAUGEN")

KELLY: This is Ruth Slenczynska. On her album "My Life In Music," she revisits favorite pieces she's played for more than nine decades. NPR's Tom Huizenga sat down with the pianist for a video chat, a piano lesson and a trip down memory lane.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "LYRIC PIECES, OP. 65: 6. WEDDING DAY AT TROLDHAUGEN")

TOM HUIZENGA, BYLINE: Ruth Slenczynska likes to hand out sage advice.

RUTH SLENCZYNSKA: You don't become a pianist until you're past the age of 60. And then you should have something to say that's worthwhile. If you don't, forget it.

HUIZENGA: Never mind that Slenczynska made her debut as a pianist at age 4. As we settle into our chat, I discover a sharp, smart woman with a hearty chuckle.

SLENCZYNSKA: I loved meeting you (laughter).

HUIZENGA: But Slenczynska's life story hasn't always been so cheerful. From the start, she was a child prodigy from Sacramento, called the greatest piano genius since Mozart, who at age 5, left for Europe to study with a who's who of 20th century piano legends, including Artur Schnabel, Alfred Cortot and Sergei Rachmaninoff, whom she met for the first time in 1934.

SLENCZYNSKA: I was a frightened little girl at the door of his apartment at the Villa Majestic in Paris, and he pointed this long index finger down at me. And he said, you mean that plays the piano?

HUIZENGA: Slenczynska is regarded as Rachmaninoff's last living student. That first meeting with him stretched into two years of mentorship. She begins her new album with the composer's "Daisies."

SLENCZYNSKA: Well, I've played it for almost all of my life.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "6 ROMANCES, OP. 38: NO. 3, DAISIES")

HUIZENGA: Rachmaninoff told the young Slenczynska that her fingers were like overcooked spaghetti. She needed more power. But that's not all she picked up from the great composer and pianist.

SLENCZYNSKA: The most important thing that I learned was how to make the music carry a long musical line.

HUIZENGA: And how to carefully measure out those lines when it comes to climaxes, like in Chopin's dramatic "Ballade No. 1." Slenczynska offers to demonstrate at the piano.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SLENCZYNSKA: And even this large climax is not the greatest climax in this piece because there comes a final one where Chopin writes, Il piu forte possibile, which means as loud as possible.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SLENCZYNSKA: And so on.

HUIZENGA: Slenczynska learned from the great pianists, but her most consequential teacher was her father. He was a failed musician, hell-bent on making a star out of his daughter, even if it cost her her childhood.

SLENCZYNSKA: I wasn't allowed to think of myself. My only thought was to please my father and escape the magic stick.

HUIZENGA: That magic stick was what Slenczynska's father used to beat her.

SLENCZYNSKA: I've dreamed of running away from home. That was what I did eventually. But I was 19 when I did it.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "c")

HUIZENGA: After Slenczynska's father died in 1951, her career flourished without him. But she took the time to chronicle his horrific abuse in her autobiography titled "Forbidden Childhood."

SLENCZYNSKA: Well, I didn't have a childhood. No way. But I'm making up for it now.

HUIZENGA: (Laughter) That's the spirit.

SLENCZYNSKA: I'm having a good time wherever I go.

HUIZENGA: And Slenczynska, always the optimist, has been on the go. Last month, she played a full concert in Pennsylvania. She also just signed a new record deal and released "My Life In Music," her first album for the Decca label in nearly 60 years. It contains music by Grieg, Debussy, her friend Samuel Barber, her beloved Rachmaninoff, and she closes with uplifting music by Bach.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN C-SHARP MINOR, BWV 849")

HUIZENGA: After our long and wide-ranging conversation, I couldn't help asking Ruth Slenczynska the obvious question.

What's your secret? What keeps you going? You're healthy and smart and funny.

SLENCZYNSKA: Take whatever is given your way. Find what's best in it. Enjoy. Try to make somebody else's day. They'll give it back to you tenfold.

HUIZENGA: And from a 97-year-old with a career in full swing, that's advice worth following. Tom Huizenga, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF RUTH SLENCZYNSKA'S "PRELUDE AND FUGUE IN C-SHARP MINOR, BWV 849")

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