Ruth Laredo
Encyclopedia
Ruth Laredo was an American classical
pianist.
She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin
and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff
, for her Ravel
recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Concerts with Commentary”. She was often referred to as “America's First Lady of the Piano”.
on the piano of her mother, without being taught.
When she was eight years old, her mother took her to a concert of Vladimir Horowitz
in the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit. After the concert she vowed to become a concert pianist herself. Horowitz played Scriabin, and Laredo was so fascinated by this music that she developed a lifelong passion for Scriabin and other Russian composers, including Scriabin's contemporary Rachmaninoff.
In 1960 she moved to New York City and married the Bolivian-born violinist Jaime Laredo
, who was three and a half years younger than herself. She knew him at the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia and they performed together regularly until their divorce in 1974 (in some publications erroneously given as 1976). Their union produced a daughter in 1969, Jennifer, who is married to Paul Watkins, chief conductor and music director of the English Chamber Orchestra
. She lives in London.
During the pregnancy and after the birth of her daughter, Ruth Laredo had to cut back the touring with her husband. Keen to record the music of Scriabin, she approached various record companies with the proposal to record all 10 sonatas by the composer. Alan Silver from the Connoisseur Society
agreed to take the risk, although initially only for one LP (Sonatas No. 5, No. 7, “White Mass”, No. 9, “Black Mass”, Eight Etudes, Op. 42). After the remarkable success of this first recording, Connoisseur offered her the opportunity of recording the remaining seven sonatas thus become the first person to have recorded his complete sonatas. This milestone marked the beginning of her identification with the public as a solo artist.
In retrospect, Laredo explains in ”The Ruth Laredo Becoming a Musician Book” (published in 1992) that this is an alternative way to embark upon a solo career: to find a niche of repertoire, something nobody had done before. The more obvious route would be to win competitions, but she never had – apart from the Young Concert Artists International Auditions – any success in important competitions.
When her daughter was older, Laredo was ready to resume touring with her husband, but was now confronted with his wish to divorce. The divorce was executed in 1974 and pushed Laredo into a personal crisis. She took a teaching job at Yale University
and accepted the invitation of Thomas Z. Shepard from CBS Masterworks
, who was impressed by the Scriabin recordings, to record the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff. This, said Laredo, saved her life and with the Rachmaninoff recordings, made from 1974 to 1979 (the latest album released in 1981), her solo career was definitely gathering momentum.
After her landmark recordings, the international music publisher C. F. Peters commissioned Ruth Laredo to edit a new Urtext edition
of the complete 24 Preludes of Rachmaninoff. They were published in 1981 (Op. 3, No. 2), 1985 (Op. 23
) and 1991 (Op. 32
). Laredo had thought that many of the markings in the commonly used Rachmaninoff editions were not those of the composer; after studying original manuscripts which she found at the Library of Congress
and in the Rachmaninoff archive in Washington, D.C., and later also in the Glinka Museum during her tour to Russia in 1989, her suspicions were confirmed. Her new editions were much closer to the composer's original manuscripts.
Laredo wrote also articles for the magazines Piano Today and Keyboard Classics and hosted programs for National Public Radio (NPR, Performance Today and Morning Edition) and the New York classical radio station WQXR
(First Hearing and Onstage with Young Concert Artists).
In 2000 Laredo appeared in a scene of Woody Allen
's movie Small Time Crooks
, where Hugh Grant
tries to impress Tracey Ullman
by taking her to a piano recital, where Ruth Laredo is playing Rachmaninoff.
Ruth Laredo was also known for the striking gowns (most of them made by Lincoln Center's costume designer
Catherine Heiser) she wore on stage and therefore was published in fashion magazines. She could often be seen on riding her bicycle or jogging while listening to the music of Phil Collins
or the rock group Genesis
around Manhattan
's Upper West Side
where she lived.
She had a strong commitment to Jewish tradition. In a lecture of the Concerts with Commentary series about Felix Mendelssohn
, she discussed the significance and depth of his Jewish background. Abraham Mendelssohn's decision to convert to Protestantism, said Laredo, was a practical one to ensure his son's acceptance into the music profession of Germany.
Ruth Laredo died on May 26, 2005 in her sleep in her Manhattan apartment. The cause of death was ovarian cancer
, a diagnosis
which was made four years before her death but did not stop her from giving concerts. She is buried in Kensico Cemetery
, Valhalla, New York
, only a few metres away from the grave of Sergei Rachmaninoff who was so important to her life. At the funeral on May 31, 2005, two of her closest colleagues performed: Wei Gang Li from the Shanghai Quartet
, and Courtenay Budd, with whom – along with the St. Petersburg String Quartet
– she had given her last “Concert with Commentary” on May 6, 2005.
On May 18, 2006 her daughter Jennifer organised a memorial concert in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The participants were the Guarneri Quartet
(with Paul Watkins, Jennifer's husband), Courtenay Budd, Nicolas Kendall, Pei Yao Wang, Edmund Battersby, James Tocco
as well as Susan Wadsworth, director of the Young Concert Artists, and the flutist Paula Robison. Courtenay Budd sang Ruth Laredo's favourite song, Franz Schubert
's An die Musik
, the title of which Jennifer Laredo Watkins chose for the inscription of her mother's gravestone.
In 2007 the Ruth Laredo Memorial Prize of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions was endowed with the contributions of the family and worldwide friends and admirers of Ruth Laredo. She herself won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions Award in 1962 and later was a frequent and devoted member of the Jury of the Auditions (winners of the Memorial Prize so far are: Benjamin Moser, Germany, pianist; Bella Hristova, Bulgaria
, violinist; Charlie Albright
, USA, pianist; and George Li
, USA, pianist).
in Paris and was known for his effective methods of teaching. She studied with him four years, and he introduced her to the music of other Russian composers, notably Prokofiev
, Stravinsky
and Kabalevsky.
Her preference for Russian music led her to team up with a Russian emigré, Mischa Kottler, who also was the teacher of the pianist and singer Muriel Elizabeth Charbonneau and later of the saxophonist and composer Rick Margitza
and the jazz pianist Ray Cooke.
From 1951 to 1955 Laredo attended Mumford High School in Detroit. During summer vacations she enjoyed the Indian Hill Summer Workshops in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
. After her graduation in 1955 she began her studies with Rudolf Serkin
at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She had been introduced to Serkin in 1954 by the violinist Berl Senofsky
and the pianist Seymour Lipkin, both of whom she knew from the summer camps. Serkin told her at her audition in Marlboro, Vermont
: “I can see that you play like a tiger!” He accepted her as one of only four students.
Rudolf Serkin, a student of Arnold Schoenberg
and himself an artist of worldwide reputation, was known for his complete dedication to the music, and his fidelity to the composer. At first, he took a dim view of Laredo's passion for the music of Russian composers; his tastes ran to the Mozart
-Beethoven
-Schubert
-Brahms
line of Central European composers. Despite this, Ruth Laredo would become known later for her Scriabin and Rachmaninoff recordings and performances.
Ruth Laredo spent many summers at the Marlboro Music School and Festival
near Brattleboro, Vermont
, which had been founded in 1950 by Rudolf Serkin and Adolf Busch
(then called School of Music). There she continued her studies with Serkin and was coached in chamber music by the cellist Pablo Casals
. Fellow students included Murray Perahia
, Richard Goode
(currently artistic director of the festival, together with Mitsuko Uchida
), Emanuel Ax
and Yo-Yo Ma
. At the end of each festival season, the traditional closing work was Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Op. 80
with Rudolf Serkin as soloist and the entire Marlboro community in the chorus.
Ruth Laredo graduated in 1960 with a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music
degree from the University of Pennsylvania
. Her graduation took place on a celebration of the fiftieth birthday of the American composer Samuel Barber
. By coincidence she had prepared his Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26
for her graduation recital, and so became part of the celebration. Barber was in the audience and came back to her after the concert, very warmly congratulated her, and wrote on her copy of the Sonata: “Brava, bravissima.”
in Elizabethtown, New York
, Ruth Laredo was chosen by the violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian
and the cellist Leonard Rose
to be the piano accompanist for their students, among them Arnold Steinhardt
, Michael Tree
, Pinchas Zukerman
and Itzhak Perlman
.
Ruth Laredo was a member of the faculties of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
, the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and the Manhattan School of Music
, New York City. She gave master class
es in those institutions and at the Eastman School of Music
(University of Rochester
), Indiana University Bloomington
, the New England Conservatory of Music
, Boston, the Music Academy of the West
in Santa Barbara, California
, and Princeton University
. For some time she held the Wiley Housewright Eminent Scholar Chair at the Florida State University
, Tallahassee. Among her students were the American composer and pianist Curt Cacioppo
, Michael Kimmelman
, chief art critic of the New York Times
, the Czech pianist Adam Skoumal and the Swiss pianist Oliver Schnyder
.
Laredo served as a jury member for several competitions, among them the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Naumburg Foundation Competition, the Seventeen Magazine Competition, the New York City Competition, all New York City, and the William Kapell
International Piano Competition, Maryland
. As late as 2004 she was a jury member of the International Piano-e-Competition in Minneapolis-St. Paul
, Minnesota. “We had no idea she was ill,” competition director and pianist Alexander Braginsky
told the Minneapolis Star Tribune
after Laredo's death. “She was so feisty and opinionated, a powerful personality.”
(among the pieces the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2
, where her teacher Edward Bredshall played the orchestral part), and, under Karl Krueger, her first concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
, with whom she played the second and third movements of the concerto.
She spent much of the first decade of her career as accompanist to her husband Jaime Laredo. At the same time she tried to establish herself as a soloist and in 1962 she made her orchestral debut in Carnegie Hall
with the American Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Leopold Stokowski
. Unfortunately the debut attracted little attention, and it was some time before she became recognized as a solo performer.
She was a founding member of the Music from Marlboro Concerts and in 1965 participated in their first tour, which included a visit to Israel
where she played Johann Sebastian Bach
's Concerto for three pianos in D minor with Rudolf and Peter Serkin
. She appeared in the very first Music from Marlboro Concert, “Isaac Stern
and Friends”, in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Her solo career had a major boost in 1974, when she gave her debut in Avery Fisher Hall
at New York’s Lincoln Center. Her performance of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with the New York Philharmonic
, conducted by Pierre Boulez
, was met with enthusiastic critical acclaim. In 1976 Young Concert Artists presented her solo recital debut in Alice Tully
Hall at Lincoln Center with pieces of Beethoven, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, whose “La Valse
” would become her signature piece. Her encore in this concert was Gershwin
's Second Piano Prelude. In 1981 she made her solo recital debut in Carnegie Hall with a program entitled “Homage to Rachmaninoff” which included works by Chopin, Beethoven and Scriabin.
In 1988 Laredo participated at the celebration of the 135th anniversary of the first Steinway
piano, and the 500,000th piano manufactured by that company. The concert, hosted by Van Cliburn
, featured 27 famed pianists including Alfred Brendel
, Shura Cherkassky
, Murray Perahia
, Rudolf Serkin and Alexis Weissenberg
. Laredo played Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 32, No. 5 and Coquette from Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9
.
Besides New York City and Detroit, Laredo performed in Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, 1966 in the White House
together with her then-husband Jaime Laredo for President Lyndon B. Johnson
), in Boston, Buffalo
, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis
, Maryland, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Toronto, at numerous festivals, among them the Amadeus Festival/Midsummer Nights Festival in New Jersey
, the Aspen Music Festival and School
in Aspen, Colorado
, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival
in Bridgehampton, New York
, the Caramoor International Music Festival
in Katonah, New York
, the Eastern Music Festival
in Greensboro, North Carolina
, the Maverick Concerts Festival in Hurley
, New York, the Spoleto Festival USA
in Charleston, South Carolina
, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, the Music Mountain Summer Chamber Music Festival in Falls Village, Connecticut
and the Casals Festival
in San Juan, Puerto Rico
. She made tours in the season 1976/1977 to Europe (Netherlands
, Germany) and Japan, and 1979 to Japan and Hong Kong. Particularly remarkable was her tour in 1989 to Russia
(then RSFSR
, Moscow, St. Petersburg [then Leningrad]) and the Ukraine
(then USSR, Odessa
). For an American to come to Russia to play the music of Russian composers – in the same room of the Moscow Conservatory
where Rachmaninoff had played – was an extraordinary undertaking. But Laredo enjoyed a very warm welcome by the audience and her concerts were sold-out. In the Glinka
Museum in Moscow she had the opportunity to see Rachmaninoff's original manuscripts.
In addition to the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit and the American Symphony Orchestra, Ruth Laredo played among others with the Philadelphia
, the Cleveland
and the American Composers Orchestra
, the Baltimore
, Beaumont, Boston
, Greenwich, Houston
, Indianapolis
, Jupiter, Madison
, National
, New Jersey
, St. Louis and
Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo
and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
under Kazimierz Kord
, with whom in 1993 she performed in Warsaw
in a United Nations Day Concert, which was broadcast by TV stations all around Europe, and then toured with the orchestra through the USA culminating in a concert in Carnegie Hall with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1
.
In the 1988/1989 season she began her series “Concerts with Commentary” (first called “Speaking of Music”) in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The series ran for 17 seasons until the last concert on May 6, 2005, shortly before her death. The programs became very popular and therefore she performed them in other cities of the USA.
The series included works from Brahms
, Chopin
, Dvořák
, Fauré
, Franck
, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Clara
and Robert Schumann
, Scriabin and Tchaikovsky
, which she discussed before the performances with great engagement. The final concert was the third of a series entitled “The Russian Spirit” with music from Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Shostakovich
.
On September 13, 2001, only two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, Ruth Laredo celebrated the 25th anniversary of her debut in the Alice Tully Hall with a recital as the opening concert of Lincoln Center's 2001 season. Before the concert, she explained to the audience why she had not cancelled the event: “It was important for me to play. Great music gives us spiritual sustenance and gives us hope. It is in that spirit that I play tonight.” The program was similar to that of her debut in 1976 and included works by Robert Schumann, Beethoven, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, with Chopin's Waltz Op. 69, No. 1 as the encore.
In September 2004 Laredo was invited by the Russian ministry of culture to participate in the International Festival of the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory
. At this event, dedicated to the 200st birthday of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka
, she played chamber music
as well as solo recitals and gave a master class for Russian students.
She was noted for her strong commitment to chamber music and said that soloists particularly need this experience as a preparation for concerts with big orchestras. “The lack of it is evident when a soloist performs as if the orchestra were a mere accompaniment,” Laredo said. She collaborated frequently with the Shanghai Quartet (regularly at the Music Mountain Festival), and among others with the American, Budapest, Emerson
, Manhattan, Muir, St. Lawrence
, St. Petersburg
, Veronika and the Vermeer Quartet
, with the Chappaqua
, Manhattan Chamber
, Orpheus Chamber
and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
, with the Philharmonia Virtuosi
, the Sea Cliff Chamber Players and the Orchestra of St. Luke's
. She appeared with the Guarneri Quartet
and the Tokyo String Quartet
in the Lincoln Center series Great Performers. She helped the Tokyo String Quartet several times when a member of the Quartet was indisposed transforming the group temporarily into a piano quartet. Since their first association in 1980 in Alice Tully Hall, she toured each season with the flutist Paula Robison as the “Paula and Ruth” duo.
Ruth Laredo also played contemporary music, mainly in the beginning of her career in Marlboro. This was something Pablo Casals – who did not like music beyond the era of Brahms – disapproved with. He would stay home when Leon Kirchner
would come to Marlboro for a performance. In the 1983/1984 season she played the world premiere of Peter Martin
's work called Waltzes with the New York City Ballet
. In 1989 she played Wallingford Riegger
's twelve-tone
Variations for Piano and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra under Paul Lustig Dunkel
. Her repertoire included also works by Franz Liszt
, Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók
, Anton Webern
and Alban Berg
.
In 1994 Laredo played with jazz pianist Marian McPartland
and from 1996 with her and Dick Hyman
in programs entitled Three Piano Crossover.
In the last years of her life her career as a soloist with orchestras waned, but she was comfortable with a mix of recitals and chamber concerts.
Laredo criticized the rising trend in the US to record live concerts for broadcasting as “troublesome”. She preferred the European method of recording first the concerts separately in radio studios.
In 1970 Laredo made her famous premiere recordings of Scriabin's 10 sonatas on three LPs for Connoisseur Society (reissued in 1984 by Nonesuch Records
on a three-LP box and in 1996 on a double CD). She made the recordings in St. Paul's Chapel
at Columbia University
, New York City, on a Baldwin
SD-10 grand piano. The Scriabin LPs were released in a period where little of Scriabin's music was available, and Laredo's recordings led to his rising popularity in the USA. “I was kind of a crusader for his music,” said Laredo.
From 1974 to 1981 followed Rachmaninoff's complete solo piano works on seven LPs for CBS Masterworks (reissued in 1993 by Sony Classical
on five CDs), a project no pianist before had ever dared to undertake (at the same time the German-American pianist Michael Ponti
also recorded the Scriabin and Rachmaninoff works). At this time she was a relative rarity as a female piano soloist, particularly in the technically demanding and muscular works of Rachmaninoff. There were only a few others – Gina Bachauer
, Myra Hess
and later Alicia de Larrocha
, for example. The New York Daily News
baptised her now “America's First Lady of the Piano”, an appellation which was later used by many others. Laredo initially disliked this as she felt it was sexist: she wanted to be known as a pianist, not a “woman pianist” Later she relented and used the title herself in her book and on her website.
The preparations for the recording of Rachmaninoff's solo piano works proved to be very exhausting. Laredo said she now understood why some of the pieces had never been played by anybody: it was simply because they were so hard. Rachmaninoff, who was 6'4" tall with correspondingly large hands, had composed many of his works for himself. One could only wonder how the tiny 5'1" Laredo was able to play Rachmaninoff's pieces, some of which indulged in 11-key stretches. After practicing the music of “Rocky”, as she called Rachmaninoff, she had to get her hands massaged.
Ruth Laredo also recorded more than 20 albums featuring works of other composers, among them Isaac Albéniz
, Bach, Beethoven, Lili Boulanger, Brahms, Chopin, Falla
, Debussy
, Khachaturian
, Fauré, Mozart, Poulenc
, Ravel, Clara and Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky as well as of the American composers Barber, Aaron Copland
, Ives
, Laderman
, Kirchner, Rorem
and Siegmeister
. Especially acclaimed was the recording with James Tocco of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
in the version for two pianos for Gasparo Records.
Laredo made her last recordings in 1999 with the Shanghai Quartet, who called her “the fifth member of the Shanghai Quartet” for Arabesque Records
(piano quartets by Brahms) and at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with the violinist Philip Setzer for Newport Classic
(“Day Music” by Ned Rorem; the CD contains also Norem's “War Scenes” and “End of Summer” performed by other artists including the composer at the piano). Both CDs were released in 2000.
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
pianist.
She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, for her Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
“Concerts with Commentary”. She was often referred to as “America's First Lady of the Piano”.
Biography
Ruth Meckler was born on November 20, 1937 as the elder of two daughters of Miriam Meckler-Horowitz, a piano teacher, and Ben Meckler, an English teacher, in Detroit, Michigan. When she was only two years old, she was already able to play God Bless AmericaGod Bless America
"God Bless America" is an American patriotic song written by Irving Berlin in 1918 and revised by him in 1938. The later version has notably been recorded by Kate Smith, becoming her signature song ....
on the piano of her mother, without being taught.
When she was eight years old, her mother took her to a concert of Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
in the Masonic Auditorium in Detroit. After the concert she vowed to become a concert pianist herself. Horowitz played Scriabin, and Laredo was so fascinated by this music that she developed a lifelong passion for Scriabin and other Russian composers, including Scriabin's contemporary Rachmaninoff.
In 1960 she moved to New York City and married the Bolivian-born violinist Jaime Laredo
Jaime Laredo
Jaime Laredo is a violinist and conductor. Currently the conductor and Music Director of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, he began his musical career when he was five years old. In 1948 he came to North America and took lessons from Antonio DeGrass...
, who was three and a half years younger than herself. She knew him at the Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...
in Philadelphia and they performed together regularly until their divorce in 1974 (in some publications erroneously given as 1976). Their union produced a daughter in 1969, Jennifer, who is married to Paul Watkins, chief conductor and music director of the English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
. She lives in London.
During the pregnancy and after the birth of her daughter, Ruth Laredo had to cut back the touring with her husband. Keen to record the music of Scriabin, she approached various record companies with the proposal to record all 10 sonatas by the composer. Alan Silver from the Connoisseur Society
Connoisseur Society
Connoisseur Society is an American audiophile classical music and jazz record label based in New York. It was founded by E. Alan Silver and James Goodfriend. Silver is also leading the company In Sync, which offers remasterings on CDs from tapes and LPs.Silver and Goodfriend helped artists from the...
agreed to take the risk, although initially only for one LP (Sonatas No. 5, No. 7, “White Mass”, No. 9, “Black Mass”, Eight Etudes, Op. 42). After the remarkable success of this first recording, Connoisseur offered her the opportunity of recording the remaining seven sonatas thus become the first person to have recorded his complete sonatas. This milestone marked the beginning of her identification with the public as a solo artist.
In retrospect, Laredo explains in ”The Ruth Laredo Becoming a Musician Book” (published in 1992) that this is an alternative way to embark upon a solo career: to find a niche of repertoire, something nobody had done before. The more obvious route would be to win competitions, but she never had – apart from the Young Concert Artists International Auditions – any success in important competitions.
When her daughter was older, Laredo was ready to resume touring with her husband, but was now confronted with his wish to divorce. The divorce was executed in 1974 and pushed Laredo into a personal crisis. She took a teaching job at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and accepted the invitation of Thomas Z. Shepard from CBS Masterworks
CBS Masterworks Records
CBS Masterworks Records was a subsidiary of CBS Records, producing classical and spoken-word releases as well as Broadway albums.It was started in 1927 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of the Columbia Records label...
, who was impressed by the Scriabin recordings, to record the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff. This, said Laredo, saved her life and with the Rachmaninoff recordings, made from 1974 to 1979 (the latest album released in 1981), her solo career was definitely gathering momentum.
After her landmark recordings, the international music publisher C. F. Peters commissioned Ruth Laredo to edit a new Urtext edition
Urtext edition
An urtext edition of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material...
of the complete 24 Preludes of Rachmaninoff. They were published in 1981 (Op. 3, No. 2), 1985 (Op. 23
Preludes, Op. 23 (Rachmaninoff)
Ten Preludes, Op. 23, is a set of ten preludes for solo piano, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1901 and 1903. This set includes the famous Prelude in G minor.- Composition :...
) and 1991 (Op. 32
Preludes, Op. 32 (Rachmaninoff)
Thirteen Preludes , Op. 32, is a set of thirteen preludes for solo piano, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1910.-Works in this opus:Opus 32 contains 13 preludes:*No. 1 in C major *No. 2 in B flat minor...
). Laredo had thought that many of the markings in the commonly used Rachmaninoff editions were not those of the composer; after studying original manuscripts which she found at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and in the Rachmaninoff archive in Washington, D.C., and later also in the Glinka Museum during her tour to Russia in 1989, her suspicions were confirmed. Her new editions were much closer to the composer's original manuscripts.
Laredo wrote also articles for the magazines Piano Today and Keyboard Classics and hosted programs for National Public Radio (NPR, Performance Today and Morning Edition) and the New York classical radio station WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
(First Hearing and Onstage with Young Concert Artists).
In 2000 Laredo appeared in a scene of Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's movie Small Time Crooks
Small Time Crooks
Small Time Crooks is a 2000 American crime-comedy film directed, written, and starring Woody Allen, along with Tracey Ullman and Hugh Grant.-Plot:...
, where Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...
tries to impress Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman
Tracey Ullman is a British stage and television actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, screenwriter and author ....
by taking her to a piano recital, where Ruth Laredo is playing Rachmaninoff.
Ruth Laredo was also known for the striking gowns (most of them made by Lincoln Center's costume designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
Catherine Heiser) she wore on stage and therefore was published in fashion magazines. She could often be seen on riding her bicycle or jogging while listening to the music of Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
or the rock group Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
around Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
where she lived.
She had a strong commitment to Jewish tradition. In a lecture of the Concerts with Commentary series about Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, she discussed the significance and depth of his Jewish background. Abraham Mendelssohn's decision to convert to Protestantism, said Laredo, was a practical one to ensure his son's acceptance into the music profession of Germany.
Ruth Laredo died on May 26, 2005 in her sleep in her Manhattan apartment. The cause of death was ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous growth arising from the ovary. Symptoms are frequently very subtle early on and may include: bloating, pelvic pain, difficulty eating and frequent urination, and are easily confused with other illnesses....
, a diagnosis
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines with variations in the use of logics, analytics, and experience to determine the cause and effect relationships...
which was made four years before her death but did not stop her from giving concerts. She is buried in Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery
Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, Westchester County, New York, was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads which served the city...
, Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
, only a few metres away from the grave of Sergei Rachmaninoff who was so important to her life. At the funeral on May 31, 2005, two of her closest colleagues performed: Wei Gang Li from the Shanghai Quartet
Shanghai Quartet
The Shanghai Quartet a string quartet that formed in 1983. The quartet is made up of four members: first violinist Weigang Li, second violinist Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li, and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras. The group’s tours have included North America, South America, Japan, China, Australia,...
, and Courtenay Budd, with whom – along with the St. Petersburg String Quartet
St. Petersburg String Quartet
St.Petersburg String Quartet is a Russian string quartet, that alongside the Borodin String Quartet represents the great Russian tradition of the string quartet playing....
– she had given her last “Concert with Commentary” on May 6, 2005.
On May 18, 2006 her daughter Jennifer organised a memorial concert in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The participants were the Guarneri Quartet
Guarneri Quartet
The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. During the quartet's early years the members were in residence at Harpur College in upstate New York....
(with Paul Watkins, Jennifer's husband), Courtenay Budd, Nicolas Kendall, Pei Yao Wang, Edmund Battersby, James Tocco
James Tocco
James Tocco is an American concert pianist. He is the youngest of thirteen children born to Vincenzo and Rose Tocco, both Sicilian immigrants.-Early life:...
as well as Susan Wadsworth, director of the Young Concert Artists, and the flutist Paula Robison. Courtenay Budd sang Ruth Laredo's favourite song, Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's An die Musik
An die Musik
Franz Schubert composed his lied "An die Musik" in March 1817 for solo voice and piano, with text from a poem by his friend Franz von Schober. In the Deutsch catalog of Schubert's works it is number 547, or D547. The original key is D major. It was published in 1827 as Opus 88 No. 4 by Weigl...
, the title of which Jennifer Laredo Watkins chose for the inscription of her mother's gravestone.
In 2007 the Ruth Laredo Memorial Prize of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions was endowed with the contributions of the family and worldwide friends and admirers of Ruth Laredo. She herself won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions Award in 1962 and later was a frequent and devoted member of the Jury of the Auditions (winners of the Memorial Prize so far are: Benjamin Moser, Germany, pianist; Bella Hristova, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, violinist; Charlie Albright
Charlie Albright
Charlie Albright is an American-born classical pianist. He is a 2010 Gilmore Young Artist, an official Steinway Artist, and is under management with Young Concert Artists, Inc...
, USA, pianist; and George Li
George Li
George Li , born August 24, 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts, is a Chinese-American pianist.- Career :Li has been performing publicly since the age of nine. He has been gaining attention as a significant recitalist, a chamber musician, and a soloist with orchestra. At the age of eleven, he performed...
, USA, pianist).
Education
Ruth Laredo's mother Miriam Meckler, a piano teacher mainly for children, taught Ruth first. When the time came for more formal training in 1947, she sent her to Edward Bredshall. Bredshall had studied with Nadia BoulangerNadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
in Paris and was known for his effective methods of teaching. She studied with him four years, and he introduced her to the music of other Russian composers, notably Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and Kabalevsky.
Her preference for Russian music led her to team up with a Russian emigré, Mischa Kottler, who also was the teacher of the pianist and singer Muriel Elizabeth Charbonneau and later of the saxophonist and composer Rick Margitza
Rick Margitza
Rick Margitza is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Margitza began playing violin at age four; his grandfather was a cellist and his father played violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Following this he played piano and oboe, and settled on tenor sax while in Fordson high school...
and the jazz pianist Ray Cooke.
From 1951 to 1955 Laredo attended Mumford High School in Detroit. During summer vacations she enjoyed the Indian Hill Summer Workshops in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
. After her graduation in 1955 she began her studies with Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin
Rudolf Serkin , was a Bohemian-born pianist.-Life and early career:Serkin was born in Eger, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire to a Russian-Jewish family....
at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She had been introduced to Serkin in 1954 by the violinist Berl Senofsky
Berl Senofsky
Berl Senofsky was a violinist of the twentieth century.He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Russian immigrant violinists. He received his first music lessons from his father at the age of three. By the time he was six he had won a scholarship to study with Louis Persinger, a...
and the pianist Seymour Lipkin, both of whom she knew from the summer camps. Serkin told her at her audition in Marlboro, Vermont
Marlboro, Vermont
Marlboro is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 978 at the 2000 census. The town is home to both the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum and Marlboro College, which each summer hosts the Marlboro Music School and Festival....
: “I can see that you play like a tiger!” He accepted her as one of only four students.
Rudolf Serkin, a student of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and himself an artist of worldwide reputation, was known for his complete dedication to the music, and his fidelity to the composer. At first, he took a dim view of Laredo's passion for the music of Russian composers; his tastes ran to the Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
-Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
-Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
-Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
line of Central European composers. Despite this, Ruth Laredo would become known later for her Scriabin and Rachmaninoff recordings and performances.
Ruth Laredo spent many summers at the Marlboro Music School and Festival
Marlboro Music School and Festival
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont...
near Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located in the southeast corner of the state, along the state line with New Hampshire. The population was 12,046 at the 2010 census...
, which had been founded in 1950 by Rudolf Serkin and Adolf Busch
Adolf Busch
Adolf Georg Wilhelm Busch was a German-born violinist and composer.Busch was born in Siegen in Westphalia. He studied at the Cologne Conservatory with Willy Hess and Bram Eldering...
(then called School of Music). There she continued her studies with Serkin and was coached in chamber music by the cellist Pablo Casals
Pablo Casals
Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
. Fellow students included Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia KBE is an American concert pianist and conductor.-Early life:Murray Perahia was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish or, Ladino. The family...
, Richard Goode
Richard Goode
Richard Goode is an American classical pianist, especially known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and chamber music.Goode was born in East Bronx, New York...
(currently artistic director of the festival, together with Mitsuko Uchida
Mitsuko Uchida
, born 20 December 1948, is a Japanese naturalized British classical pianist.-Career:Born in Atami, a seaside town close to Tokyo, Japan, Uchida moved to Vienna, Austria, with her diplomat parents when she was twelve years old, after her father was named the Japanese ambassador to Austria...
), Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax
Emanuel Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is currently a teacher on the faculty of the Juilliard School. He is considered one of the best known concert pianists of the 21st century.-Early life:...
and Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...
. At the end of each festival season, the traditional closing work was Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Op. 80
Choral Fantasy (Beethoven)
The Fantasy in C minor for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Op. 80, was composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven.-Background, composition, and premiere:...
with Rudolf Serkin as soloist and the entire Marlboro community in the chorus.
Ruth Laredo graduated in 1960 with a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
degree from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. Her graduation took place on a celebration of the fiftieth birthday of the American composer Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
. By coincidence she had prepared his Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26
Piano Sonata (Barber)
The Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26 was written by Samuel Barber in 1949 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers. First performed by renowned pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, the sonata has remained a popular concert staple ever since....
for her graduation recital, and so became part of the celebration. Barber was in the audience and came back to her after the concert, very warmly congratulated her, and wrote on her copy of the Sonata: “Brava, bravissima.”
Teaching
At the Curtis Institute of Music and at the summer music festival of the Meadowmount School of MusicMeadowmount School of Music
The Meadowmount School of Music, founded in 1944 by Ivan Galamian, is a 7-week summer school in Westport in Upstate New York for accomplished young violinists, cellists, violists, and pianists training for professional careers in music. The students are required to practice for at least five hours...
in Elizabethtown, New York
Elizabethtown, New York
Elizabethtown is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 1,315 at the 2000 census. The county seat of Essex County is a hamlet also called Elizabethtown. The name is derived from Elizabeth Gilliland, the wife of an early settler....
, Ruth Laredo was chosen by the violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian
Ivan Galamian
Ivan Alexander Galamian was an influential Armenian violin teacher of the twentieth century.He was born in Tabriz, Iran, but his family soon emigrated to Moscow, Russia. Galamian studied violin at the School of the Philharmonic Society there with Konstantin Mostras until his graduation in 1919...
and the cellist Leonard Rose
Leonard Rose
Leonard Rose was an American cellist and pedagogue.Rose was born in Washington, D.C., his parents were immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine...
to be the piano accompanist for their students, among them Arnold Steinhardt
Arnold Steinhardt
Arnold Steinhardt , is an American violinist, best known as the first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet....
, Michael Tree
Michael Tree
Michael Tree is an American violist, born in Newark, New Jersey.-Biography:Michael Tree's principal studies were with Efrem Zimbalist on violin and viola at the Curtis Institute of Music...
, Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman is a world-renowned violinist, violist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his ongoing 45-year career has seen him perform with the world's best-known orchestras and record over 100 works...
and Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
.
Ruth Laredo was a member of the faculties of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
, New York City. She gave master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es in those institutions and at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
(University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
), Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
, the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
, Boston, the Music Academy of the West
Music Academy of the West
The Music Academy of the West is a music conservatory located in Montecito, California near Santa Barbara, California. Every year, it hosts a summer music festival for the community highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composers, conductors, and artists.A yearly maximum of 135...
in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, and Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. For some time she held the Wiley Housewright Eminent Scholar Chair at the Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, Tallahassee. Among her students were the American composer and pianist Curt Cacioppo
Curt Cacioppo
Curtis Cacioppo is an American composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. He is of Sicilian ancestry on his father's side, and Anglo-Saxon ancestry on his mother's side....
, Michael Kimmelman
Michael Kimmelman
Michael Kimmelman is an author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the chief architecture critic for The New York Times and written on issues of public housing, community development and social responsibility. He was the paper's longtime chief art critic and, in 2007, created the Abroad column,...
, chief art critic of the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the Czech pianist Adam Skoumal and the Swiss pianist Oliver Schnyder
Oliver Schnyder
Oliver Schnyder is a Swiss classical pianist.- Education :Oliver Schnyder studied with Emmy Henz-Diémand , and until graduating with the soloist diploma in 1998 from the master class of Homero Francesch at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Zürich Oliver Schnyder (b. October 3, 1973 in Möriken,...
.
Laredo served as a jury member for several competitions, among them the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Naumburg Foundation Competition, the Seventeen Magazine Competition, the New York City Competition, all New York City, and the William Kapell
William Kapell
William Kapell was an outstanding American pianist who was killed in the crash of a commercial airliner.-Biography:...
International Piano Competition, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. As late as 2004 she was a jury member of the International Piano-e-Competition in Minneapolis-St. Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, Minnesota. “We had no idea she was ill,” competition director and pianist Alexander Braginsky
Alexander Braginsky
-Life and work:He studied at the Moscow conservatory with Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser, and, after Goldenweiser's death in 1961, with Theodore Gutman. In the early 1970s, he left Russia with his wife, Tatiana Remenikova, never to visit again until 2004...
told the Minneapolis Star Tribune
Star Tribune
The Star Tribune is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is published seven days each week in an edition for the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. A statewide version is also available across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The...
after Laredo's death. “She was so feisty and opinionated, a powerful personality.”
Concerts
Ruth Laredo appeared on stage as a little girl in the Music Club of Metropolitan Detroit. When she was 11, she gave both her first recital in the Detroit Institute of ArtsDetroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
(among the pieces the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Beethoven)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19, by Ludwig van Beethoven was composed primarily between 1787 and 1789, although it did not attain the form it was published as until 1795. Beethoven did write another finale for it in 1798 for performance in Prague, but that is not the finale...
, where her teacher Edward Bredshall played the orchestral part), and, under Karl Krueger, her first concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
, with whom she played the second and third movements of the concerto.
She spent much of the first decade of her career as accompanist to her husband Jaime Laredo. At the same time she tried to establish herself as a soloist and in 1962 she made her orchestral debut in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
with the American Symphony Orchestra
American Symphony Orchestra
The American Symphony Orchestra is a New York-based American orchestra founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski, then aged 80. Following Maestro Stokowski's departure, Kazuyoshi Akiyama was appointed Music Director of the American Symphony Orchestra from 1973-1978. Music Directors during the early...
conducted by Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. Unfortunately the debut attracted little attention, and it was some time before she became recognized as a solo performer.
She was a founding member of the Music from Marlboro Concerts and in 1965 participated in their first tour, which included a visit to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
where she played Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's Concerto for three pianos in D minor with Rudolf and Peter Serkin
Peter Serkin
-Biography:He was born in New York City and is the son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, and grandson of the influential violinist Adolf Busch, whose daughter Irene had married Rudolf Serkin...
. She appeared in the very first Music from Marlboro Concert, “Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
and Friends”, in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Her solo career had a major boost in 1974, when she gave her debut in Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
at New York’s Lincoln Center. Her performance of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major with the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, conducted by Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, was met with enthusiastic critical acclaim. In 1976 Young Concert Artists presented her solo recital debut in Alice Tully
Alice Tully
Alice Bigelow Tully was a U.S. singer, music promoter and philanthropist.Alice Tully was born in Corning, New York. She spent her high school years at the famous Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut. Tully began her career as a mezzo-soprano, then became a soprano. She studied in Paris and...
Hall at Lincoln Center with pieces of Beethoven, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, whose “La Valse
La Valse
La valse, un poème choréographique pour orchestre , is a work written by Maurice Ravel from February 1919 until 1920 ; it was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work...
” would become her signature piece. Her encore in this concert was Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
's Second Piano Prelude. In 1981 she made her solo recital debut in Carnegie Hall with a program entitled “Homage to Rachmaninoff” which included works by Chopin, Beethoven and Scriabin.
In 1988 Laredo participated at the celebration of the 135th anniversary of the first Steinway
Steinway
Steinway may refer to:* Steinway & Sons, an American and German piano manufacturer* Steinway Hall, a building housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos* Steinway D-274, the concert grand piano by Steinway & Sons...
piano, and the 500,000th piano manufactured by that company. The concert, hosted by Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
, featured 27 famed pianists including Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel
Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian pianist, born in Czechoslovakia and a resident of the United Kingdom. He is also a poet and author.-Biography:...
, Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky
Shura Cherkassky was an American classical pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone...
, Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia
Murray Perahia KBE is an American concert pianist and conductor.-Early life:Murray Perahia was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish or, Ladino. The family...
, Rudolf Serkin and Alexis Weissenberg
Alexis Weissenberg
-Early life and career:Born into a Jewish family in Sofia, Weissenberg began taking piano lessons at the age of three from Pancho Vladigerov. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After escaping to what was then Palestine in 1945, where he studied under Leo Kestenberg, he went...
. Laredo played Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 32, No. 5 and Coquette from Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9
Carnaval (Schumann)
Carnaval, Op. 9, is a work by Robert Schumann for piano solo, written in 1834-1835, and subtitled Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes . It consists of a collection of short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent...
.
Besides New York City and Detroit, Laredo performed in Washington, D.C. (Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, 1966 in the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
together with her then-husband Jaime Laredo for President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
), in Boston, Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, Maryland, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Toronto, at numerous festivals, among them the Amadeus Festival/Midsummer Nights Festival in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, the Aspen Music Festival and School
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
in Aspen, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival
Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival
The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival in Bridgehampton, New York, was founded in 1984 by New Zealand-born flutist Marya Martin and her husband, Manhattan businessman Ken Davidson. The festival presents thirteen concerts of chamber music from the end of July to the end of August every summer, and...
in Bridgehampton, New York
Bridgehampton, New York
Bridgehampton is a hamlet in the South Fork of Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 1,381 at the 2000 census....
, the Caramoor International Music Festival
Caramoor International Music Festival
The Caramoor International Music Festival is a summer music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Inc., which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Katonah, New York.The Caramoor...
in Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York
Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States.-History:Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an American Indian from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists...
, the Eastern Music Festival
Eastern Music Festival
The Eastern Music Festival and School, founded in 1961 in Greensboro, North Carolina, is a nationally renowned classical music festival of the performing arts and institute for young musicians that runs for five weeks during the summer. The institute accepts gifted students of ages 14 through 22...
in Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, the Maverick Concerts Festival in Hurley
Hurley (town), New York
Hurley is a town in Ulster County, New York, USA. The population was 6,314 at the 2010 census.The Town of Hurley is in the northeast part of the county, west of the City of Kingston...
, New York, the Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the world's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy...
in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit, the Music Mountain Summer Chamber Music Festival in Falls Village, Connecticut
Falls Village, Connecticut
Falls Village is a village and census-designated place in the town of Canaan, Connecticut. Because Falls Village is the town center and principal constituent village in Canaan, the entire town is often referred to as "Falls Village." That usage also avoids confusion of the town with Canaan Village...
and the Casals Festival
Casals Festival
The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of world renowned musician Pablo Casals.-Background:...
in San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
. She made tours in the season 1976/1977 to Europe (Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Germany) and Japan, and 1979 to Japan and Hong Kong. Particularly remarkable was her tour in 1989 to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(then RSFSR
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
, Moscow, St. Petersburg [then Leningrad]) and the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
(then USSR, Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
). For an American to come to Russia to play the music of Russian composers – in the same room of the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
where Rachmaninoff had played – was an extraordinary undertaking. But Laredo enjoyed a very warm welcome by the audience and her concerts were sold-out. In the Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
Museum in Moscow she had the opportunity to see Rachmaninoff's original manuscripts.
In addition to the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit and the American Symphony Orchestra, Ruth Laredo played among others with the Philadelphia
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
, the Cleveland
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
and the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, the Baltimore
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
, Beaumont, Boston
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
, Greenwich, Houston
Houston Symphony Orchestra
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
, Indianapolis
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana.Annually, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs 200 concerts for over 350,000 people. It is the largest performing arts organization in Indiana. The ISO is currently one of only 18 American...
, Jupiter, Madison
Madison Symphony Orchestra
The Madison Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Its conductor is John DeMain, who began his 14th season with the orchestra in the fall of 2007...
, National
National Symphony Orchestra
The National Symphony Orchestra , founded in 1931, is an American symphony orchestra that performs at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.-History:...
, New Jersey
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra located in the state of New Jersey, United States. Philip James founded the orchestra in 1922. The orchestra is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. Neeme Järvi, the NJSO's music director from 2005 to 2009, is currently the orchestra's...
, St. Louis and
Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra located in Buffalo, New York. Its primary performing venue is Kleinhans Music Hall, which is a National Historic Landmark. Its regular concert season features gala concerts, classics programming of core repertoire, Pops...
and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra , one of Poland's premier musical institutions, was established in 1901 on the initiative of an assembly of Polish aristocrats and financiers, as well as musicians...
under Kazimierz Kord
Kazimierz Kord
Kazimierz Kord is a Polish conductor. Between 1939 and 1945, he studied piano at the Leningrad Conservatory. He also studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków....
, with whom in 1993 she performed in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
in a United Nations Day Concert, which was broadcast by TV stations all around Europe, and then toured with the orchestra through the USA culminating in a concert in Carnegie Hall with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)
Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 1, in 1892, at age 19. He dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work thoroughly in 1917.-First version:...
.
In the 1988/1989 season she began her series “Concerts with Commentary” (first called “Speaking of Music”) in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. The series ran for 17 seasons until the last concert on May 6, 2005, shortly before her death. The programs became very popular and therefore she performed them in other cities of the USA.
The series included works from Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
, Franck
César Franck
César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....
, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Clara
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann was a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era...
and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Scriabin and Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, which she discussed before the performances with great engagement. The final concert was the third of a series entitled “The Russian Spirit” with music from Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
.
On September 13, 2001, only two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, Ruth Laredo celebrated the 25th anniversary of her debut in the Alice Tully Hall with a recital as the opening concert of Lincoln Center's 2001 season. Before the concert, she explained to the audience why she had not cancelled the event: “It was important for me to play. Great music gives us spiritual sustenance and gives us hope. It is in that spirit that I play tonight.” The program was similar to that of her debut in 1976 and included works by Robert Schumann, Beethoven, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel, with Chopin's Waltz Op. 69, No. 1 as the encore.
In September 2004 Laredo was invited by the Russian ministry of culture to participate in the International Festival of the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
. At this event, dedicated to the 200st birthday of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
, she played chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
as well as solo recitals and gave a master class for Russian students.
She was noted for her strong commitment to chamber music and said that soloists particularly need this experience as a preparation for concerts with big orchestras. “The lack of it is evident when a soloist performs as if the orchestra were a mere accompaniment,” Laredo said. She collaborated frequently with the Shanghai Quartet (regularly at the Music Mountain Festival), and among others with the American, Budapest, Emerson
Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet is a New York–based string quartet in residence at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Previously the Quartet was in residence at The Hartt School. Formed in 1976, they have released more than twenty albums and won nine Grammy Awards. Both violinists...
, Manhattan, Muir, St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence Quartet
The St. Lawrence Quartet is a Canadian string quartet, and one of Canada's premiere chamber ensembles. It was founded in 1989 and has served residencies at the Juilliard School, Yale University, the University of Toronto, the Hartt School, and Stanford University...
, St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg String Quartet
St.Petersburg String Quartet is a Russian string quartet, that alongside the Borodin String Quartet represents the great Russian tradition of the string quartet playing....
, Veronika and the Vermeer Quartet
Vermeer Quartet
The Vermeer Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and active until 2007.With performances in practically every major city in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia, the Vermeer Quartet achieved an international stature as one of...
, with the Chappaqua
Chappaqua Orchestra
Founded in 1958 by Boris Koutzen and other musicians from the NBC Symphony who were residents of Chappaqua, New York and neighboring towns in Westchester County , the Chappaqua Orchestra annually presents a season of orchestral and chamber concerts...
, Manhattan Chamber
Manhattan Chamber Orchestra
The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra is a chamber orchestra based in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.The orchestra was founded in 1987 by its artistic director and conductor, Richard Auldon Clark. It performs music of all genres with a special focus on contemporary music by American...
, Orpheus Chamber
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. It is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score....
and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...
, with the Philharmonia Virtuosi
Philharmonia Virtuosi
The Philharmonia Virtuosi is a chamber orchestra that first performed in 1974. It was founded by Richard Kapp, who conducted the orchestra until the time of his death in 2006....
, the Sea Cliff Chamber Players and the Orchestra of St. Luke's
Orchestra of St. Luke's
The Orchestra of St. Luke's is an American chamber orchestra based in New York City.It was founded in the summer of 1979 at the Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, New York....
. She appeared with the Guarneri Quartet
Guarneri Quartet
The Guarneri Quartet was an American string quartet founded in 1964 at the Marlboro Music School and Festival. During the quartet's early years the members were in residence at Harpur College in upstate New York....
and the Tokyo String Quartet
Tokyo String Quartet
The is an international string quartet.The group formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music. The founding members attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where they studied with Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its formation the Quartet won First Prizes at the Coleman Competition,...
in the Lincoln Center series Great Performers. She helped the Tokyo String Quartet several times when a member of the Quartet was indisposed transforming the group temporarily into a piano quartet. Since their first association in 1980 in Alice Tully Hall, she toured each season with the flutist Paula Robison as the “Paula and Ruth” duo.
Ruth Laredo also played contemporary music, mainly in the beginning of her career in Marlboro. This was something Pablo Casals – who did not like music beyond the era of Brahms – disapproved with. He would stay home when Leon Kirchner
Leon Kirchner
Leon Kirchner was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 3.Kirchner was born in Brooklyn, New York...
would come to Marlboro for a performance. In the 1983/1984 season she played the world premiere of Peter Martin
Peter Martin
Peter James Martin is an English former cricketer who played in 8 Tests and 20 ODIs for England from 1995 to 1998.Nicknamed "Digger", Martin was primarily a fast-medium swing bowler...
's work called Waltzes with the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
. In 1989 she played Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger was a prolific American music composer, well known for orchestral and modern dance music, and film scores...
's twelve-tone
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
Variations for Piano and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra under Paul Lustig Dunkel
Paul Lustig Dunkel
Paul Lustig Dunkel is an American flutist and conductor. From 1983 to 2008, he served as music director of the Westchester Philharmonic.Dunkel was born and raised in New York City. His mother, Johanna Lustig, was a pianist from Vienna, Austria and his father Eugene Dunkel was a scenic designer...
. Her repertoire included also works by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
and Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
.
In 1994 Laredo played with jazz pianist Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland, OBE is an English-born jazz pianist, composer, writer, and the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio, NPR.-Early life:...
and from 1996 with her and Dick Hyman
Dick Hyman
Richard “Dick” Hyman is an American jazz pianist/keyboardist and composer, best-known for his versatility with jazz piano styles. Over a 50 year career, he has functioned as pianist, organist, arranger, music director, and, increasingly, as composer...
in programs entitled Three Piano Crossover.
In the last years of her life her career as a soloist with orchestras waned, but she was comfortable with a mix of recitals and chamber concerts.
Laredo criticized the rising trend in the US to record live concerts for broadcasting as “troublesome”. She preferred the European method of recording first the concerts separately in radio studios.
Recordings
In 1967 Ruth Laredo recorded a well received album of piano music by French composer Maurice Ravel, also renowned for music full of pianistic challenges.In 1970 Laredo made her famous premiere recordings of Scriabin's 10 sonatas on three LPs for Connoisseur Society (reissued in 1984 by Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
on a three-LP box and in 1996 on a double CD). She made the recordings in St. Paul's Chapel
St. Paul's Chapel (Columbia University)
St. Paul's Chapel is the chapel of Columbia University in New York City. Designed and built from 1904 to 1907 by I. N. Phelps Stokes of the architectural firm Howells & Stokes in an elaborate mixture of Italian Renaissance, Byzantine, and Gothic styles, its interior features Guastavino tile...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, New York City, on a Baldwin
Baldwin Piano Company
The Baldwin Piano Company was the largest US-based manufacturer of keyboard instruments, most notably pianos. It remains a subsidiary of the Gibson Guitar Corporation, although it ceased domestic production of pianos in December 2008.-History:...
SD-10 grand piano. The Scriabin LPs were released in a period where little of Scriabin's music was available, and Laredo's recordings led to his rising popularity in the USA. “I was kind of a crusader for his music,” said Laredo.
From 1974 to 1981 followed Rachmaninoff's complete solo piano works on seven LPs for CBS Masterworks (reissued in 1993 by Sony Classical
Sony Classical Records
Sony Classical Records was started in 1927 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of the American Columbia Records. In 1948, it issued the first commercially successful long-playing 12" record...
on five CDs), a project no pianist before had ever dared to undertake (at the same time the German-American pianist Michael Ponti
Michael Ponti
Michael Ponti is a concert and recording pianist.-Life and career:Ponti was born in Germany, but has lived in the United States for most of his life...
also recorded the Scriabin and Rachmaninoff works). At this time she was a relative rarity as a female piano soloist, particularly in the technically demanding and muscular works of Rachmaninoff. There were only a few others – Gina Bachauer
Gina Bachauer
Gina Bachauer , was a Greek classical pianist who toured extensively in the United States and Europe....
, Myra Hess
Myra Hess
Dame Myra Hess DBE was a British pianist.She was born in London as Julia Myra Hess, but was best known by her middle name. At the age of five she began to study the piano and two years later entered the Guildhall School of Music, where she graduated as winner of the Gold Medal...
and later Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Spanish pianist from Catalonia. One of the great piano legends of the 20th century, Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", Time "one of the world's most outstanding pianists" and The Guardian "the leading Spanish pianist of her...
, for example. The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
baptised her now “America's First Lady of the Piano”, an appellation which was later used by many others. Laredo initially disliked this as she felt it was sexist: she wanted to be known as a pianist, not a “woman pianist” Later she relented and used the title herself in her book and on her website.
The preparations for the recording of Rachmaninoff's solo piano works proved to be very exhausting. Laredo said she now understood why some of the pieces had never been played by anybody: it was simply because they were so hard. Rachmaninoff, who was 6'4" tall with correspondingly large hands, had composed many of his works for himself. One could only wonder how the tiny 5'1" Laredo was able to play Rachmaninoff's pieces, some of which indulged in 11-key stretches. After practicing the music of “Rocky”, as she called Rachmaninoff, she had to get her hands massaged.
Ruth Laredo also recorded more than 20 albums featuring works of other composers, among them Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
, Bach, Beethoven, Lili Boulanger, Brahms, Chopin, Falla
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spanish Andalusian composer of classical music. With Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados and Joaquín Turina he is one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century....
, Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, Khachaturian
Aram Khachaturian
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...
, Fauré, Mozart, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
, Ravel, Clara and Robert Schumann, Tchaikovsky as well as of the American composers Barber, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, Laderman
Ezra Laderman
Ezra Laderman is an American composer of classical music.-Biography:His parents, Isidor and Leah, both emigrated to the United States from Poland. Though poor, the family had a piano. Ezra writes, "At four, I was improvising at the piano; at seven, I began to compose music, writing it down...
, Kirchner, Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
and Siegmeister
Elie Siegmeister
Elie Siegmeister was an American composer, educator and author.His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary...
. Especially acclaimed was the recording with James Tocco of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...
in the version for two pianos for Gasparo Records.
Laredo made her last recordings in 1999 with the Shanghai Quartet, who called her “the fifth member of the Shanghai Quartet” for Arabesque Records
Arabesque Records
Arabesque Records is an American classical and jazz record label.Arabesque began as a classical music subsidiary of the Caedmon company. In 1988, Marvin Reiss and Ward Botsford bought the company, turning it into an independent, and continued releasing classical until 1992, when it switched focuses...
(piano quartets by Brahms) and at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival with the violinist Philip Setzer for Newport Classic
Newport Classic
Newport Classic, Ltd, is a record label of classical music, and is located in Newport, Rhode Island.In its catalog are recordings of both familiar and unusual works, including Casanova's Homecoming, A Waterbird Talk, Trouble in Tahiti, A Ceremony of Carols, Médée , Il campanello di notte, The Jumping...
(“Day Music” by Ned Rorem; the CD contains also Norem's “War Scenes” and “End of Summer” performed by other artists including the composer at the piano). Both CDs were released in 2000.
Awards and recognitions
- Winner of the GabrilowitschOssip GabrilowitschOssip Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-born American pianist, conductor and composer.- Biography :...
scholarship (1948/49) - Winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (1962)
- Year's Best Recording Award of Stereo ReviewStereo ReviewStereo Review was an American magazine first published in 1958 by Ziff-Davis with the title HiFi and Music Review. It was one of a handful of magazines then available for the individual interested in high fidelity. Throughout its life it published a blend of record and equipment reviews, articles...
and Saturday Review (Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, La Valse; 1968) - Year's Best Recording Award of Saturday Review and High Fidelity (Scriabin: The Complete Sonatas, Vol. 1; 1970)
- Best of the Month of Stereo Review (Scriabin: The Complete Sonatas, Vol. 1; 1970)
- Musician of the Month of High Fidelity/Musical America (1974)
- Nomination for the Grammy AwardGrammy AwardA Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
1976 (Ravel: Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, with Jaime Laredo and Jeffrey SolowJeffrey SolowJeffrey Solow is an American cello virtuoso and the immediate past president of the American String Teachers Association and president of the Violoncello Society, Inc. of New York.-Biography:...
) - Best of the Month of Stereo Review (Rachmaninoff, The Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 5; 1979)
- Best Keyboard Artist Award of the Record World Magazine (Rachmaninoff, The Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 5; 1979)
- Nomination for the Grammy Award 1981 (Rachmaninoff: The Complete Works for Solo Piano, Vol. 7)
- selected as one of five pianists for the 90-year anniversary celebration of the Carnegie Hall (1981)
- Nomination for the Grammy Award 1983 (Barber: Sonata for Piano, Op. 26, Souvenirs, Op. 28, Nocturne, Op. 33)
- Honorary Member of the Sigma Alpha IotaSigma Alpha IotaSigma Alpha Iota , International Music Fraternity for Women. Formed to "uphold the highest standards of music" and "to further the development of music in America and throughout the world", it continues to provide musical and educational resources to its members and the general public...
International Music Fraternity (1983) - Distinguished Service to Music in America Award of the Music Teachers National AssociationMusic Teachers National Association-Membership:Its membership consists of approximately 22,000 independent and collegiate music teachers. MTNA headquarters are in downtown Cincinnati on the 31st floor of the Carew Tower.- MTNA structure :...
(1989) - Music in Humanity Award at the Music Festival in Mount Gretna, PennsylvaniaMount Gretna, PennsylvaniaMount Gretna is a borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Lebanon, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 242 at the 2000 census...
(1994) - Best of the Year of the Audiophile Audition Magazine (2nd new edition of the Scriabin Sonatas; 1997)
Discography
- Mozart/Bach. Music from Marlboro; Mozart: Concerto in E-flat for two PianosPiano Concerto No. 10 (Mozart)The Concerto No. 10 in E-flat major for Two Pianos, K. 365/316a, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written in 1779. Mozart wrote it to play with his sister Maria Anna . He was 23 years old and on the verge of leaving Salzburg for Vienna....
(Rudolf Serkin, Peter Serkin); Bach: Concerto in C major for three Pianos (Mieczyslaw HorszowskiMieczyslaw HorszowskiMieczysław Horszowski was a Polish-American pianist who had the longest known career in the history of the performing arts.-Early life:...
, Peter Serkin, Rudolf Serkin), Concerto in D minor for three Pianos (Rudolf Serkin, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, Ruth Laredo); Marlboro Festival Orchestra (Alexander SchneiderAlexander SchneiderAlexander Schneider was a violinist, conductor, and educator. Born in Vilna, Lithuania, he later moved to the United States as a member of the Budapest Quartet.- Biography :...
). LP, CBS Masterworks ML 6247, 1964 - Bach. Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, BWV 1046: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Myron Bloom, Robert Johnson (horns), John MackJohn Mack (musician)John Mack was a renowned American oboist.Born in Somerville, New Jersey, Mack attended the Juilliard School of Music, studying oboe with Harold Gomberg and Bruno Labate and then at the Curtis Institute of Music with Marcel Tabuteau, the longtime principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra.His...
, Ronald Richards, Peter Christ (oboes), Donald MacCourt (bassoon), Alexander Schneider (violin); Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, BWV 1047: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Robert Nagel (trumpet), Ornulf Gulbransen (flute), John Mack (oboe); Alexander Schneider (violin); Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, BWV 1048; Orchestral Suite No. 1, BWV 1066: Members of the Marlboro Festival and John Mack, Joseph Turner (oboes), Joyce Kelley (bassoon), Ruth Laredo (piano); Marlboro Festival Orchestra: Pablo Casals. CD, Sony Classical SMK 46253, 1990; recorded 1964 (Brandenburg Concertos 1 and 3), 1965 (Brandenburg Concerto 2) and 1966 (Orchestral Suite) - Bach. Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, BWV 1049: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Alexander Schneider (violin), Ornulf Gulbransen, Nancy Dalley (flutes), Rudolf Serkin (piano); Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, BWV 1050: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Ornulf Gulbransen (flute), Alexander Schneider (violin), Rudolf Serkin (piano); Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, BWV 1051: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Peter Serkin (continuo); Orchestral Suite No. 4, BWV 1069: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Henry Nowak, Wilmer Wise, Louis Opalesky (trumpets), John Mack, Joseph Turner, Patricia Grignet (oboes), Joyce Kelley (bassoon), John WyreJohn WyreJohn Harvey Wyre was a U.S.-born Canadian percussionist, composer, and music educator. He worked as percussionist with a number of important orchestras in North America, notably serving for many years as the principal timpanist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
(timpani), Ruth Laredo (piano); Marlboro Festival Orchestra: Pablo Casals. CD, Sony Classical SMK 46254, 1990; recorded 1964 (Brandenburg Concertos) and 1966 (Orchestral Suite) - Bach. Goldberg VariationsGoldberg VariationsThe Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
, BWV 1087: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Rudolf Serkin (piano); Orchestral Suite No. 2, BWV 1067: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Ornulf Gulbransen (flute), Ruth Laredo (continuo); Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068: Members of the Marlboro Festival and Henry Nowak, Wilmer Wise, Louis Opalesky (trumpets), John Mack, Patricia Grignet (oboes), John Wyre (timpani), Ruth Laredo (continuo); Marlboro Festival Orchestra: Pablo Casals. CD, Sony Classical SMK 45892, 1990; recorded 1976 (Goldberg Variations) and 1966 (Orchestral Suites) - Ravel. Gaspard de la NuitGaspard de la nuitGaspard de la nuit: Trois poèmes pour piano d'après Aloysius Bertrand is a piece for solo piano by Maurice Ravel, written in 1908. It has three movements, each based on a poem by Aloysius Bertrand...
, Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, La ValseLa ValseLa valse, un poème choréographique pour orchestre , is a work written by Maurice Ravel from February 1919 until 1920 ; it was conceived as a ballet but is now more often heard as a concert work...
. LP, Connoisseur Society CS-2005, 1968 - Scriabin. The Complete Piano Sonatas, Sonata No. 1, Op. 6; Etude, Op. 2, No. 1Étude Op. 2 No. 1 (Scriabin)Étude Op. 2 No. 1 is a technical Étude for piano in C-sharp minor which was written by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin in 1887.-Background:...
; Sonata No. 2, Op. 19; Eight Etudes, Op. 42; Sonata No. 3, Op. 23; Sonata No. 4, Op. 30; Sonata No. 5, Op. 53; Sonata No. 6, Op. 62; Désir, Op. 57, No. 1; Caresse dansée, Op. 57, No. 2; Sonata No. 7, Op. 64; Sonata No. 8, Op. 66; Sonata No. 9, Op. 68; Sonata No. 10, Op. 70; Vers la Flamme, Op. 72Vers la flammeVers la flamme, Op. 72 is one of Alexander Scriabin's last few pieces for piano, written in 1914.The melody of the piece is very simple, consisting mainly of descending half steps. However, the unusual harmonies and difficult tremolos create an intense, fiery luminance...
. 2 CDs, Nonesuch 5973035-2, 1996 (new edition of 3 LPs Connoisseur Society CS-2032/CS-2034/CS-2035, 1970/Nonesuch 73035, 1984) - Robert Schumann. Music for piano and violin; Ruth Laredo (piano), Jaime Laredo (violin); Sonata No. 1, Op. 105Violin Sonata No. 1 (Schumann)The violin sonata no. 1 in A minor, opus 105 of Robert Schumann was written the week of September 12– 16 September 1851. Schumann was reported to have expressed displeasure with the work...
; Sonata No. 2, Op. 121; Intermezzo from F.A.E. Sonata. LP, Desto DC 6442, 1979; recorded 1970 - Laderman/Siegmeister. Ezra Laderman: Duo for Violin and Piano; Elie Siegmeister: Sonata No. 2; Jaime Laredo (violin), Ruth Laredo (piano). LP, DestoDesto RecordsDesto Records was an American classical music record label based in New York and founded in approximately 1964. Its records were distributed by CMS Records of Mount Vernon, New York beginning in the 1970s...
DC 7125, 1971 - Scriabin. 24 Preludes, Op. 11 (incl. No. 9Prelude Op. 11 No. 9 (Scriabin)Alexander Scriabin's Prelude Op. 11 No. 9 is in E major. It is 36 bars long and takes almost a minute and a half to play, being played at an Andantino pace...
and No. 10Prelude Op. 11 No. 10 (Scriabin)Alexander Scriabin's Prelude Op. 11 No. 10 is in C sharp minor. It is 20 bars long and takes under a minute and a half to play. It is marked at Andante. It has two sections of mysterious major seventh intervals and tritone harmonies, split up by a lyrical E Major section...
); 5 Preludes, Op. 74 (incl. No. 2Prelude Op. 74 No. 2 (Scriabin)Alexander Scriabin's Prelude Op. 74 No. 2, entitled Très lent, contemplatif , is one of five preludes in Op. 74, composed in early 1914.His second wife considered it his best piece...
); Poem, Op. 32, No. 1. CD, Phoenix USA PHCD 114, 1990 (new edition of LP Desto DC 7145, 1972)
- Rorem/Kirchner. Ned Rorem: Day Music, Leon Kirchner: Sonata concertante; Jaime Loredo (violin), Ruth Laredo (piano). LP, Desto DC 7151, 1973
- Rorem. Day Music: Jaime Laredo (violin), Ruth Laredo (piano); Night Music: Earl Carlyss (violin), Ann ScheinAnn Schein CarlyssAnn Schein Carlyss was born to a violinist mother and an attorney father. She is a Master Teacher and Concert Pianist who has performed with many conductors, including George Szell, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Sir Colin Davis...
(piano). CD, Phoenix USA PHCD123, 1991 (Day Music previously published on LP Desto DC 7151, 1973; Night Music on LP Desto DC 7174, 1974) - Scriabin. Greatest Hits; Morton EstrinMorton EstrinMorton Estrin, the noted American pianist, was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1923. His career began in 1949 with a well-received recital at Town Hall. He studied with the noted teacher Vera Maurina-Press and others....
/Ruth Laredo; Ruth Laredo plays Etude, Op. 2, No. 1; Sonata No. 4, Op. 30; Etudes, Op. 42, No. 3 and No. 4; Vers la Flamme, Op. 72; Sonata No. 5, Op. 53. LP, Connoisseur Society CS-2046, 1973 - Ravel. Music from Marlboro, The Marlboro Music Festival, Rudolf Serkin (director); Trio for Violin, Cello and PianoPiano Trio (Ravel)Maurice Ravel's Trio for piano, violin and cello is a chamber work composed in 1914. Dedicated to Ravel's counterpoint teacher André Gedalge, the trio was first performed in Paris in January 1915, by Alfredo Casella , Gabriel Willaume , and Louis Feuillard...
: Jaime Laredo (violin), Ruth Laredo (piano), Jeffrey Solow (cello); Sonata for Violin and Cello: Jaime Laredo (violin), Leslie Parnas (cello). LP, CBS Masterworks M 33529, 1973 - Kirchner/Copland/Ives/Lees. Music for Violin and Piano; Leon Kirchner: Sonata Concertante (Jaime Laredo, violin; Ruth Laredo, piano); Aaron Copland: Sonata for Violin and Piano (Jaime Laredo, violin; Ann ScheinAnn Schein CarlyssAnn Schein Carlyss was born to a violinist mother and an attorney father. She is a Master Teacher and Concert Pianist who has performed with many conductors, including George Szell, James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Sir Colin Davis...
, piano); Charles Ives: Sonata No. 4 for Violin and Piano (Jaime Laredo, violin; Ann Schein, piano); Benjamin Lees: Sonata No. 2 (1973; Rafael Druian, violin; Ilse von AlpenheimIlse von Alpenheim-Biography:Born at Innsbruck, she was trained by her mother, a piano teacher, and made her first public appearance as soloist at the age of nine in Joseph Haydn's piano concerto Hob. XVIII,11. Starting from 1944 she studied with Winfried Wolf in Kitzbühel and, from 1946 to 1949, with Franz...
, piano). CD, Phoenix USA PHCD 136, 1997 (Kirchner previously published on LP Desto DC 7151, 1973, Copland and Ives onLP Desto DC 6439, 1975, Lees on LP Desto DC 7174, 1974) - Rachmaninoff. The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 1; Fantasy Pieces, Op. 3Morceaux de FantaisieMorceaux de fantaisie , Op. 3, is a set of five piano solo pieces composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1892...
(incl. Prelude in C sharp minor); Salon Pieces, Op. 10; Moments Musicaux, Op. 16Six Moments Musicaux (Rachmaninoff)Six moments musicaux , Op. 16, is a set of solo piano pieces composed by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff between October and December, 1896. Moments musicaux comprises a group of six separate works which reproduce musical forms characteristic of previous musical eras...
. CD, Sony Classical SMK 48468, 1993 (new edition on 5 CDs of The Complete Works for Solo Piano on 7 LPs from CBS Masterworks M 32938/M 33430/M 33998/M 34532/M 35151/M 35836/M 35881, 1974–1981) - Rachmaninoff. The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 2; Piano Transcriptions; Chopin VariationsVariations on a Theme of Chopin (Rachmaninoff)Not to be confused with a work with the same title by Federico Mompou or Ferruccio Busoni's work of the same title.Variations on a Theme of Chopin , Op. 22, is a group of 22 variations on Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C minor Not to be confused with a work with the same title by Federico Mompou or...
. CD, Sony Classical SMK 48469, 1993 (new edition on 5 CDs of The Complete Works for Solo Piano on 7 LPs from CBS MasterworksM 32938/M 33430/M 33998/M 34532/M 35151/M 35836/M 35881, 1974–1981) - Rachmaninoff. The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 3; Sonatas No. 1, Op. 28Piano Sonata No. 1 (Rachmaninoff)Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 28, is a piano sonata in D minor by Sergei Rachmaninoff, completed in 1908. It is the first of three "Dresden pieces", along with Symphony No. 2 and part of an opera, which were composed in the quiet city of Dresden, Germany...
and No. 2, Op. 36Piano Sonata No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)Piano Sonata No. 2, Op. 36, is a piano sonata in B-flat minor composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1913. Rachmaninoff revised it in 1931, with the note, "The new version, revised and reduced by author." It has three movements:#Allegro agitato#Non allegro...
; Corelli Variations. CD, Sony Classical SMK 48470, 1993 (new edition on 5 CDs of The Complete Works for Solo Piano on 7 LPs from CBS Masterworks M 32938/M 33430/M 33998/M 34532/M 35151/M 35836/M 35881, 1974–1981) - Rachmaninoff. The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 4; Preludes Op. 23Preludes, Op. 23 (Rachmaninoff)Ten Preludes, Op. 23, is a set of ten preludes for solo piano, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1901 and 1903. This set includes the famous Prelude in G minor.- Composition :...
and Op. 32Preludes, Op. 32 (Rachmaninoff)Thirteen Preludes , Op. 32, is a set of thirteen preludes for solo piano, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1910.-Works in this opus:Opus 32 contains 13 preludes:*No. 1 in C major *No. 2 in B flat minor...
. CD, Sony Classical SMK 48471, 1993 (new edition on 5 CDs of The Complete Works for Solo Piano on 7 LPs from CBS Masterworks M 32938/M 33430/M 33998/M 34532/M 35151/M 35836/M 35881, 1974–1981) - Rachmaninoff. The Complete Solo Piano Music, Vol. 5; Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33 and Op. 39; FragmentsMiscellaneous solo piano compositions (Rachmaninoff)The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff produced a number of solo piano pieces that were either lost, unpublished, or not assigned an opus number. While often disregarded in the concert repertoire, they are nevertheless part of his oeuvre. He composed sixteen such pieces, and all others are lost. Ten of...
; Lilacs; Daisies; Oriental SketchMiscellaneous solo piano compositions (Rachmaninoff)The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff produced a number of solo piano pieces that were either lost, unpublished, or not assigned an opus number. While often disregarded in the concert repertoire, they are nevertheless part of his oeuvre. He composed sixteen such pieces, and all others are lost. Ten of...
; Two Fantasy PiecesMiscellaneous solo piano compositions (Rachmaninoff)The composer Sergei Rachmaninoff produced a number of solo piano pieces that were either lost, unpublished, or not assigned an opus number. While often disregarded in the concert repertoire, they are nevertheless part of his oeuvre. He composed sixteen such pieces, and all others are lost. Ten of...
. CD, Sony Classical SMK 48472, 1993 (new edition on 5 CDs of The Complete Works for Solo Piano on 7 LPs from CBS Masterworks M 32938/M 33430/M 33998/M 34532/M 35151/M 35836/M 35881, 1974–1981) - Rachmaninoff. Romantic Piano Pieces: Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3; Morceaux de salon, Op. 10; Moments musicaux, Op. 16;3,5; Preludes, Op. 23;1,3,4,5,6,10; Preludes, Op. 32;2,5,10,12,13, Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 33;7 and Op. 39;2. CD, Sony Classical, SMK 89950, 2002 (collection of previously published material, 1974–1977)
- Rachmaninoff/Debussy/Scriabin/Prokofiev. Recital; Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2; Debussy: Feu d’artifice, BruyèresPreludes (Debussy)Claude Debussy's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.Each book was written...
, La fille aux cheveux de linPreludes (Debussy)Claude Debussy's Préludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve preludes each. Unlike previous collections of preludes, like those of JS Bach and Chopin, Debussy's do not follow a strict pattern of key signatures.Each book was written...
, Reflets dans l'eauReflets dans l'eauClaude Debussy's piece Reflets dans l'eau is the first of three pieces for the piano from his first volume of Images, which are frequently performed separately. It was written in 1905...
; Scriabin: Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 2, No. 1; Poem, Op. 32, No. 1; Sonata No. 9 in F, Op. 68 (“Black Mass”); Prokofiev: Sonata No. 3 in A minor, Op. 28. CD, Connoisseur Society 30CD-3020, 1980 - Debussy/Scriabin/Rachmaninoff. Essential Piano Library, The Student's Essential Classics, with Earl Wild, Santiago Rodriguez, David Bar-Illan, Jorge Bolet, Gilbert Kalish; Ruth Laredo plays Debussy, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (Preludes, Book I), Reflections in the Water (Images, Book I), Fireworks (Preludes, Book II); Scriabin, Etude in C-sharp minor Op. 2, No. 1; Rachmaninoff, Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2. 2 LPs Baldwin Piano Artists BDW-700/701, 1981
- Scriabin/Prokofiev/Barber. Essential Piano Library, Masters Perform Master Works. LP, Baldwin Piano Artists BDW-805, 1981
- Ravel. MiroirsMiroirsMiroirs, or "Reflections" is a suite for solo piano written by French impressionist composer Maurice Ravel between 1904 and 1905. First performed by Ricardo Viñes in 1906, Miroirs contains five movements, each dedicated to a fellow member of the French impressionist group, Les...
, La Valse, SonatineSonatine (Ravel)Sonatine is a piano work written by Maurice Ravel. Although Ravel wrote in his autobiography that he wrote the Sonatine after Miroirs, it seems to have been written between 1903 and 1905...
, Prelude in A major, Menuet sur le nom d'HaydnMenuet sur le nom d'HaydnMenuet sur le nom d'Haydn is a minuet written by Maurice Ravel in 1909 to mark the centenary of Joseph Haydn's death.-Description:The piece is only 54 bars long and lasts for about a minute and a half. The theme is based on Haydn's own name as a five-note motif...
. CD, Sanctuary, 1998 (new edition of LP CBS Masterworks M 36734, 1982) - Barber. Piano Sonata, Op. 26Piano Sonata (Barber)The Piano Sonata in E-flat minor, Op. 26 was written by Samuel Barber in 1949 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the League of Composers. First performed by renowned pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, the sonata has remained a popular concert staple ever since....
; Souvenirs, Op. 28; Nocturne, Op. 33 (Homage to John FieldJohn Field (composer)John Field was an Irish pianist, composer, and teacher. He was born in Dublin into a musical family, and received his early education there. The Fields soon moved to London, where Field studied under Muzio Clementi...
). CD, Sanctuary, 1998 (new edition of LP Nonesuch D 79032, 1982) - Chopin. Mazurkas, Op. 6, Nos. 2 and 3; Op. 24, No. 2; Op. 33, No. 4; Op. 56, No. 2; Op. 63, No. 3; Waltzes, Op. 34, Nos. 1 and 2; Op. 42Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42 (Chopin)Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42, is a lively waltz composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1840.-Background:Though none of Chopin's works were actually intended to be danced to, this waltz does appear to be appropriate for use in the ballroom...
; Op. 69, No. 1; Op. 69, No. 2; Etude, Op. 25, No. 4Étude Op. 25, No. 4 (Chopin)Étude Op. 25, No. 4 in A minor is a technical study composed by Frédéric Chopin. It is marked Agitato at the head. The technique explored in this piece is the performance of off-beat staccato chords set against a regular on-beat bass. This is an example of syncopation...
; Nocturne, Op. 15, No. 1; Scherzo, Op. 20. CD, Sanctuary, 1998 (new edition of LP Nonesuch 71450, 1987; recorded 1982/1985) - Tchaikovsky. The Seasons, Op. 37aThe Seasons (Tchaikovsky)The Seasons, Op. 37a is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in the northern hemisphere. The work is also sometimes heard in orchestral and other arrangements by...
; Polka de Salon, Op. 9, No. 2; Mazurka de Salon, Op. 9, No. 3; Humoresque, Op. 10, No. 2; Natha-Valse, Op. 51, No. 4. CD, Sanctuary, 1998 (new edition of LP Nonesuch Digital Stereo 79119, 1985) - Fauré/Lili Boulanger/Ravel/Poulenc. French Masterpieces for flute and piano, Ruth Laredo (piano), Paula Robison (flute); Gabriel Fauré: Sonata in A major; Lili Boulanger: Nocturne; Maurice Ravel: Pièce en forme de Habanera; Francis Poulenc: SonataFlute Sonata (Poulenc)The Flute Sonata by Francis Poulenc, for flute and piano, was written in 1957. It is dedicated to the memory of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, an American patron of chamber music. Poulenc composed it for the flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, and he and Rampal gave the première in June 1957 at the...
. CD, Pergola, 2006 (new edition of CD Musical Heritage Society 2003 resp. LP Amerco 1991/1992; recorded in 1985) - Beethoven. Sonatas No. 23 (Appassionata)Piano Sonata No. 23 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 is a piano sonata. It is considered one of the three great piano sonatas of his middle period . It was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick...
, No. 26 (Les Adieux)Piano Sonata No. 26 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a, known as the Les Adieux sonata, was written during the years 1809 and 1810.The title Les Adieux implies a programmatic nature...
, No. 3Piano Sonata No. 3 (Beethoven)Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 3 in C major, Op. 2, No. 3, is a sonata written for solo piano, composed in 1796. It is dedicated to Franz Joseph Haydn...
and No. 20. CD, Second Hearing GS 9007, 1986; recorded live - Ravel. Pièces pour 2 pianos, Ruth Laredo, Jacques RouvierJacques RouvierJacques Rouvier is a French pianist. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jean Hubeau, Vlado Perlemuter, and Pierre Sancan. He took two Premiers Prix : in piano performance and in chamber music .Rouvier was remarkably successful at piano competitions in his youth...
; BoleroBoléroBoléro is a one-movement orchestral piece by Maurice Ravel . Originally composed as a ballet commissioned by Russian ballerina Ida Rubinstein, the piece, which premiered in 1928, is Ravel's most famous musical composition....
, Mother Goose SuiteMa Mère l'OyeMa mère l'oye is a musical work by French composer Maurice Ravel.-Piano versions:Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l'oye as a piano duet for the Godebski children, Mimi and Jean, ages 6 and 7. Ravel dedicated this work for four hands to the children...
, Sites Auriculaires, Frontispièce, La Valse. CD, DenonDenon RecordsDenon Records was a Japanese record label owned by Denon, distributed by A&M Records from 1990 through 1992. This was a reissue program that included 390 jazz and classical music titles that were issued on compact disc.-Artists:*Eliane Elias*Peter Erskine...
33C37-7907, 1986 - Albéniz/Falla. Isaac Albéniz: Songs of SpainChants d'EspagneChants d'Espagne op. 232, is a suite of three, then five parts pieces for the piano by Isaac Albéniz. Prélude, Orientale and Sous le palmier were published in 1892, the pieces Córdoba and Seguidillas were added in the 1898 edition.-1...
, Suite Española; Manuel de Falla: Three Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat, Suite from El Amor Brujo. CD, MCA ClassicsMCA RecordsMCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
MCAD-6265, 1988 - Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Chopin/Debussy/Robert Schumann/Prokofiev. My First Recital; Bach: Prelude No. 1 in C, BWV 846The Well-Tempered ClavierThe Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
; Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C, BWV 772; Two-Part Invention No. 4 in d, BWV 775; Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F, BWV 779; Mozart: Fantasia in d, K. 397Fantasia No. 3 (Mozart)Fantasia No. 3 in D minor, K. 397 is a piece of music for solo piano composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1782. Despite being unfinished at Mozart's death, the piece is nonetheless one of his more popular compositions for the piano...
; Sonata in C, K. 545Piano Sonata No. 16 (Mozart)The Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was described by Mozart himself in his own thematic catalogue as "for beginners," and it is sometimes known by the nickname Sonata facile or Sonata semplice....
; Beethoven: Für EliseFür EliseBagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" , is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It is usually classified as a bagatelle, but it is also sometimes referred to as an Albumblatt.- History :The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after...
; Sonata No. 20 in G, Op. 49, No. 2; Chopin: Waltz in D, Op. 64, No. 1 (Minute Waltz)Minute WaltzThe Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64, No. 1, popularly known as the Minute Waltz, and also Valse du petit chien, is a waltz for solo piano by Frédéric Chopin. It is dedicated to the Countess Delfina Potocka.-History:...
; Waltz in A, Op. 69, No. 1; Grande Valse Brillante in E, Op. 18; Debussy: The Girl With the Flaxen Hair; Clair de LuneSuite bergamasqueThe Suite bergamasque is one of the most famous piano suites by Claude Debussy. Debussy commenced the suite in 1890 at age 28, but he did not finish or publish it until 1905.-History:...
; Schumann: KinderszenenKinderszenenKinderszenen , Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version...
(From Foreign Lands and People, A Curious Story, An Important Event, Dreaming [Träumerei]); Prokofiev: March from Peter and the WolfPeter and the WolfPeter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....
. CD, ESS.A.Y CD1006, 1990 - Bach/Mozart/Beethoven/Robert Schumann/Debussy/Brahms/Chopin/Tchaikovsky/Khachaturian. My Second Recital; Bach: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring; Mozart: Rondo alla TurcaPiano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart)Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K 331 is a sonata in three movements:#Andante grazioso — a theme with six variations#Menuetto — a minuet and trio#Alla Turca: Allegretto in A minor and major....
; Beethoven: Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78Piano Sonata No. 24 (Beethoven)The Piano Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78, nicknamed "À Thérèse" was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1809. It consists of two movements:#Adagio cantabile - Allegro ma non troppo...
, Adagio Cantabile, Allegro Vivace; Schumann: ArabesqueArabeske (Schumann)Robert Schumann wrote his Arabeske in C major, Op. 18 in 1839, dedicating it to Frau Majorin Friederike Serre auf Maxen, to whom he also dedicated his Blumenstück in D flat, Op. 19. In the autumn of 1838 Schumann had left Leipzig for Vienna...
; Debussy: SarabandePour le pianoPour le piano , L.95, is a suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. The composition was finished and issued in 1901. Its premiere took place on 11 January 1902 in the Salle Érard for the Société Nationale de Musique, with Ricardo Viñes as the pianist.It consists of three parts:# Prélude# Sarabande#...
; Brahms: Waltz, Op. 39, No. 2 in E majorSixteen Waltzes for piano, four handsSixteen Waltzes for Piano, four hands, Op. 39 is a set of 16 short waltzes for piano four hands written by Johannes Brahms. They were composed in 1865, and published two years later, dedicated to Eduard Hanslick. These waltzes were also arranged for piano solo by the composer, in two different...
; Waltz , Op. 39, No. 3 in G-sharp minorSixteen Waltzes for piano, four handsSixteen Waltzes for Piano, four hands, Op. 39 is a set of 16 short waltzes for piano four hands written by Johannes Brahms. They were composed in 1865, and published two years later, dedicated to Eduard Hanslick. These waltzes were also arranged for piano solo by the composer, in two different...
; Waltz , Op. 39, No. 4 in E minorSixteen Waltzes for piano, four handsSixteen Waltzes for Piano, four hands, Op. 39 is a set of 16 short waltzes for piano four hands written by Johannes Brahms. They were composed in 1865, and published two years later, dedicated to Eduard Hanslick. These waltzes were also arranged for piano solo by the composer, in two different...
; Waltz , Op. 39, No. 5 in E majorSixteen Waltzes for piano, four handsSixteen Waltzes for Piano, four hands, Op. 39 is a set of 16 short waltzes for piano four hands written by Johannes Brahms. They were composed in 1865, and published two years later, dedicated to Eduard Hanslick. These waltzes were also arranged for piano solo by the composer, in two different...
; Waltz , Op. 39, No. 15 in A-flat majorSixteen Waltzes for piano, four handsSixteen Waltzes for Piano, four hands, Op. 39 is a set of 16 short waltzes for piano four hands written by Johannes Brahms. They were composed in 1865, and published two years later, dedicated to Eduard Hanslick. These waltzes were also arranged for piano solo by the composer, in two different...
; Waltz in Intermezzo in E-flat major, Op. 117, No. 1; Chopin: Mazurka in F-sharp minor; Waltz in C-sharp minor; Nocturne in F-sharp minor; Tchaikovsky: Humoresque, Natha-Valse, BarcarolleThe Seasons (Tchaikovsky)The Seasons, Op. 37a is a set of twelve short character pieces for solo piano by the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Each piece is the characteristic of a different month of the year in the northern hemisphere. The work is also sometimes heard in orchestral and other arrangements by...
; Khachaturian: ToccataToccata (Khachaturian)The Toccata in E-flat minor is a piece for solo piano written in 1932 by Aram Khachaturian. It is a favourite of piano students, and has been recorded many times.Khachaturian wrote this work as the first movement of a three-movement suite for piano:* Toccata...
. CD, ESS.A.Y CD1026, 1991 - Stravinsky/Rachmaninoff. Music from the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Music for Two Pianos; James Tocco and Ruth Laredo; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du PrintempsThe Rite of SpringThe Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...
; Rachmaninoff: Suite No. 2 for 2 Pianos. CD, Gasparo GSCD-313, 1996; recorded 1995 - Rachmaninoff. Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 30, Vladimir FeltsmanVladimir FeltsmanVladimir Feltsman is a Russian American classical pianist.Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. He studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky, Moscow, and Leningrad Vladimir Feltsman is a Russian American classical pianist.Feltsman debuted with the Moscow Philharmonic at age 11. He...
(piano), Israel Philharmonic OrchestraIsrael Philharmonic OrchestraThe Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is the leading symphony orchestra in Israel. It was originally known as the Palestine Orchestra, and in Hebrew as התזמורת הסימפונית הארץ ישראלית The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (abbreviation IPO; Hebrew: התזמורת הפילהרמונית הישראלית, ha-Tizmoret ha-Filharmonit...
(Zubin MehtaZubin MehtaZubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
); Morceaux de salon Op. 10, Nos. 2, 3 and 7, Ruth Laredo (piano); Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14Vocalise (Rachmaninoff)Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14 is a song by Sergei Rachmaninoff, published in 1912 as the last of his Fourteen Songs, Op. 34. Written for voice with piano accompaniment, it contains no words, but is sung using any one vowel...
, Nelly Lee (sprano), Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Arnold Katz); Prelude, Op. 23, No. 5, Prelude, Op. 32, Nos. 5, 1, 7, 8 and 12, Ruth Laredo (piano); Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, Nos. 1, 2 and 3Symphonic Dances (Rachmaninoff)The Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, is an orchestral suite in three movements. Completed in 1940, it is Sergei Rachmaninoff's last composition. The work summarizes Rachmaninoff's compositional output....
, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Arnold Katz); Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39, Nos. 2, 5 and 6, Ruth Laredo (piano); Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniThe Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
, Vladimir Feltsman (piano), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Zubin Mehta). 2 CDs, Sony Classical SB2K 64 343, 1996 - Beethoven. 3 Sonatas; Sonata No. 23, Op. 57 (Appassionata); No. 17, Op. 31; No. 2 (Tempest)Piano Sonata No. 17 (Beethoven)The Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, was composed in 1801/02 by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is usually referred to as "The Tempest" , but this title was not given by him, or indeed referred to as such during his lifetime; instead, it comes from a claim by his associate Anton Schindler...
; No. 26, Op. 81a (Les Adieux); Bagatelle for Piano in A minor (Für Elise); Bagatelle in B major. CD, Connoisseur Society CD-4210, 1997 - Mendelssohn/Robert Schumann/Clara Schumann/Brahms. Such Good Friends; Felix Mendelssohn: Introduction and Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14; Robert Schumann: Eight Fantasy Pieces, Op. 12FantasiestückeRobert Schumann's Fantasiestücke, Op. 12, are eight pieces for piano, written in 1837. Schumann titled the work inspired by the 1814 collection of novellas Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier by his favourite author, E. T. A...
(Des Abends, Aufschwung, Warum?, Grillen, In der Nacht, Fabel, Traumes Wirren, Ende vom Lied); Clara Schumann: Romance, Op. 11, No. 1; Johannes Brahms: Intermezzi, Op. 117, Nos. 1, 2 and 3; Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, No. 2Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118 (Brahms)The Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, are some of the most beloved items that the composer Johannes Brahms wrote for the solo instrument. Completed in 1893 and dedicated to Clara Schumann, the collection was the second to last composition to be published during Brahms' lifetime. It was also his...
, 119, No. 1Four Pieces for Piano, Op. 119 (Brahms)The Four Pieces for Piano Op. 119, are four character pieces for piano composed by Johannes Brahms in 1893. The collection is the last composition for solo piano by Brahms. Together with the six pieces from Op...
; Fantasia, Op. 116, No. 4. CD, Open Mike M 4022 (or Sanctuary CD 3001), 1999, recorded 1998 - Brahms. Piano Quartets No. 1, Op. 25Piano Quartet No. 1 (Brahms)The Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, was composed by Johannes Brahms between 1856 and 1861. It was Clara Schumann who owned this masterpiece, as she was the pianist for the first performance in 1861 in Hamburg. It was also played in Vienna on November 16, 1862 with Brahms himself at the piano...
, No. 2, Op. 26, No. 3, Op. 60Piano Quartet No. 3 (Brahms)The Piano Quartet in C minor, opus 60, by Johannes Brahms is scored for piano, violin, viola and cello.The quartet is in four movements:#Allegro non troppo#Scherzo: Allegro#Andante#Finale: Allegro Comodo...
, The Shanghai Quartet and Ruth Laredo (piano). 2 CDs, Arabesque Z6740-2, 2000; recorded April 1999 - Rorem. Chamber Music, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival; Day Music: Ruth Laredo (piano), Philip Setzer (violin); War Scenes: Kurt Ollmann (baritone), Ned Rorem (piano); End of Summer: Elm City Ensemble. CD, Newport Classic NPD 85663, 2000; recorded June 1999
External links
- Ruth Laredo, website of Ruth Laredo
- Obituary in The Washington PostThe Washington PostThe Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Ruth Laredo; ‘America's First Lady of the Piano’, May 28, 2005 - Obituary in the Detroit Free PressDetroit Free PressThe Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
, Pianist Ruth Laredo, 67, Succumbs to Cancer, May 27, 2005 (published at www.classicalsource.com) - Obituary in The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Ruth Laredo – ‘America's First Lady of the piano’, June 1, 2005 - Obituary in The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, Ruth Laredo, June 10, 2005 - Reference in the Maryland University Libraries
- Interview with Ruth Laredo by Bruce Duffie, June 21, 1993