Rob: Coming up on Rob at Home, a pianist from Sacramento hits number one on the highly acclaimed Billboard music charts.

She is 97 years old.

Meet Ruth Slenczynska.

What's it been like to have that... that new, uh, project come out, your new recording come out?

What's that feel like?

Ruth: I'm just a, uh, an individual who played the piano, and if you like it, gosh, I'm glad.

And that's... that's it.

Rob: Ruth is the only living student of Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the greatest pianists of all time.

My Life in Music is Ruth's first album in 60 years.

Ruth joins us next on Rob at Home.

Annc: And now, Rob on the Road, exploring Northern California.

Rob: This is Rob at Home.

I'm Rob Stewart and it is great to see you this week, and Ruth Slenczynska is my guest.

So excited for you to meet her.

Ruth is a child prodigy considered the greatest, by critics, since Mozart.

So, Ruth, how are you doing?

Let's just start with that.

How are you today?

Ruth: Just fine, thank you.

Rob: As a child, child prodigy, you played all over the world, Berlin, um, you played, uh, just so many major concert halls, Paris, and by the age of nine, you filled in for Rachmaninoff in a concert.

Is that... is that accurate?

Ruth: Yeah.

He was supposed to play a concert in Philharmonic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and he canceled because of a hurt elbow, I think.

And the manager did not want to give back the ticket money that he had collected.

He had a sold out house, and so, he figured that if he could give them a substitute artist, that it would be all right.

And he telegraphed my father and found out that I was free to perform on that particular date.

My father took me there.

I performed the concert.

The audience came.

Everybody was happy.

My father collected his check.

I played the concert.

Audience was happy and the manager was happy.

Then, Mr. Rachmaninoff heard about it, that his... his place was taken by a nine year old girl, and I don't think he was so happy about it.

I still remember my father coming in while I was practicing, saying, "Well, on Wednesday morning, you're going to play for Sergei Rachmaninoff."

Now, I knew that I was just a little girl playing the piano and Rachmaninoff was a great pianist and I...

I was a little bit terrified at the prospect, and I thought- I said, "Well, do the best you can do.

That's all you can do."

So, I figured that that's what I'll do.

Rob: He was a piano teacher for you?

Ruth: Yes.

Well, more like a grandfather.

Rob: And you had your own language because you both spoke French so well.

What was it like to be in your own bubble with... with someone, particularly Rachmaninoff, at that age?

Ruth: Well, I wasn't as aware of the figure Rachmaninoff as I am today, because he, to me, was a person.

It was someone I visited who knew music a whole lot more than I did.

I had been to see him on stage and play.

So, I knew who he was and I knew he composed because I heard these great big concertos that he had written, and so I had a lot of respect for whatever he had to say.

I didn't quite fathom the depth of all the things he was telling me at that time, but they were momentous visits and I cherish the memory of all of them, of course.

Rob: You know, um, that bond that you got to create- you say he's more like a grandfather- uh, especially at that time in your life, is so important.

And what a blessing that you had that grandfather figure in your life, um, because your- if I'm not mistaken, your dad was, um, difficult.

Ruth: Yes.

He was very difficult to be with, and Mr. Rachmaninoff was quite different.

And, uh, what he told me to do were things that nobody else could.

I didn't know another composer at that time, and as a composer, he had musical things to say that nobody else could tell me.

They were important things and things that I remember all the time now, and try to make use of.

Rob: Did he tell you through words or did he tell you through music?

Ruth: Both.

Rob: Both.

Ruth: Because if I did not understand the words, I would tell him, "Show me."

Maybe if I were 19 instead of nine, or older, I couldn't have said "show me," but because I was nine and I didn't understand something, I could say "show me."

So, like that, I learned.

Rob: That's spectacular.

Through a child's eyes, you get to really open up and hear things, you know, like you did with... with Rachmaninoff, and ask things.

What did the audience do at the end of that concert, when you filled in for him?

Ruth: Well, they gave me lots of bravos and lots of applause, but I was used to that.

I got that at the end of every concert.

Rob: I love that!

That's awesome.

Do you- I bet you can remember seeing that and just hearing it.

Ruth: Well, I figure I earned it.

I worked so hard.

I did the very best I could for them.

I played them my program.

If they liked it, they showed that they liked it, of course.

Rob: Was it your father that really pushed you to be in piano?

I...

I...

I know he wanted to be a professional, himself, and he... he pushed that on you.

Ruth: Well, I think that he wanted very much to do all the things that he made me do.

Rob: Hmm.

Ruth: He pushed me into being a professional musician.

I probably would not have chosen music by myself.

And like all kids, I hated to practice, so of course I won't want to practice between eight and nine hours a day.

Rob: Eight and nine hours a day, every day?

Ruth: Every day.

Rob: Ruth, how in the world did you do that as a child?

Ruth: Oh, my father made me.

He made me do it.

Rob: How so?

Ruth: Kept me at the piano.

Rob: He made- He... he forced you to.

Ruth: Yes, with a stick.

Rob: Wow.

Well, what do you have to say about that?

Ruth: I didn't like it.

Rob: Mmhmm.

There's that forward thinking in you, though.

I already see that looking back is- That's from days gone by, um, but I'm sorry that happened to you.

Ruth, can you imagine what it would be like for the audience to be so lucky as to hear you?

Can you imagine what it would be like to sit in that audience and hear you play?

You are so talented!

Ruth: Well, I don't think I'm so talented.

Rob: You don't?

Why?

Ruth: If I were really that talented, I wouldn't have to take all those hours every day to practice.

I'm just a very, very hard-working person without very much talent.

Rob: Hmm.

Ruth: And I have some talent, but very little, I think, because I have to work so hard to do everything that I do.

Rob: That's amazing to me, to hear you say that you don't think you're very talented, and I think you're referring to born with that ability.

Is that what you're comparing it to?

Ruth: That's what talent is supposed to be, that you have an innate gift for doing something.

I don't.

Rob: Hmm.

You know, you were called, and are called, "the greatest child prodigy since Mozart."

Now, Mozart?

I don't think he was born with... with just being able to play the piano.

Was he?

Ruth: No.

Well, he had talent!

That's what I'm trying to tell you.

Rob: So, tell me the difference.

Ruth: It's a huge difference.

Huge!

See, Mozart was creative.

I'm not creative.

Rob: You are- But, now, I'm going to tell you this.

I think everybody sees you like you see Mozart, like you see Rachmaninoff.

That's how I see you.

Ruth: Well, you're wrong.

Rob: Really?

I love...

I love your honesty.

So, I'm wrong at that?

Do you think Mozart and Rachmaninoff would have said they were wrong?

Ruth: They were wrong?

They weren't wrong.

No.

Mozart was a creative genius.

Look at what he left behind.

Look at all the compositions.

They're composers.

I'm not even remotely a composer, not even remotely.

Rob: Have you... have you written?

Ruth: Yes.

I've written little tunes, but they were always little simple things that I was told didn't amount to anything, so don't pay attention to them.

So, I didn't continue.

I learned how to play the piano.

That's all.

Rob: I'm just telling you, I think you are amazingly, um- I know you don't like the word talented, so I'm trying to think of another word, but I think you are phenomenal and I think you are the only one in your league.

Ruth: Well, thank you.

That's nice.

Rob: And so, when you play- and I have listened to so much, um, that I- as much as I can find of you playing- And Ruth, there is something that happens to me when I listen to you.

Everything in my head, all the noise, all the... the world- right?

- goes away, and all I hear is this beautiful composition.

It's as if... it's as if you read the music before you touched a note, and that you knew the whole composition before you began to play, or either you honed it.

How do you do that?

Ruth: Well, I learned how to practice from the best people in the business.

They told me how to learn a composition, how to work at it, how to produce the sound, how to get the strength, how to create- Mr. Rachmaninoff showed me how to do a long line so I could tell a story with what I play.

And this is what I try to do, and as I get more experience and work harder every day at it, I get better at this.

And this is what I present, of a pianist present world.

What they do, that's all we can do.

I'm a pianist.

I'm not a... a composer.

I'm not a creative artist.

I'm a recreative artist.

I can give you a good evening of music.

Rob: Yeah, but you give it.

It comes- You are the one giving it.

You said that he taught you that long line, and I watched your fingers playing on a lot of, uh, the videos that I've seen of you, and you are physically creating that.

I see it while... while you play, and I watched your hands up and down those keys.

And you brought up age earlier, so I'll...

I'll bring it up, only because you did.

But you mentioned, um, something about age and, if you don't mind, I'll...

I'll share that you are 81?

79?

76?

Ruth: Right now?

Rob: Yeah.

Ruth: I'm 97.

Rob: Ninety-seven.

I knew that, but you don't look 97.

Ruth: Well, thank you.

Old ladies like to hear that they look young.

Rob: Oh, you look fantastic.

And, listen, I also have to say that you are young, because youth is in here and you are one of the most youthful and, honestly, when it comes to attitude, youngest souls that... that I've had the pleasure of knowing, um, because you live that way.

You live in a way of that wonder- or it appears to me that you do- that you had with Rachmaninoff.

You learned how to just be real at a very young age, and look how that has served you.

Do you agree with that?

Ruth: I guess I'm lucky because I know that I'm- at my age, almost everybody I know complains of this or that physical ailment and I don't have any.

Rob: You have none.

You have no physical pain.

Ruth: No.

Rob: And your hands.

Your hands are beautiful.

Hold them to the camera.

The hands of an artist.

I mean, they're- and they're so- You know, my hands hurt, and you're 97 and your hands look twice as young as mine.

Raise them higher.

Oh, if only we could just- That... that talent right there is just so amazing.

There's that word talent again.

I know you're going to get- So, you have just recorded a brand new album.

Ruth: That's right.

Rob: Tell me about it.

"My Life in Music."

Ruth: Well, that was recorded in a New York studio that was the very latest.

It was quite a glamorous studio and it was underground.

Can you imagine?

I never, uh, recorded in a studio that was completely underground.

You went underground to be in it and it was- had a 40 foot high ceiling, and all of this was underground.

And then, this- they put my piano and they had microphone there, and in this room, there was just me with my piano and my microphone and my music.

It was up to me to play, and that's what I did.

I played.

Rob: The album is beautiful and when you heard the album and you heard the pieces that they used, did you hear your life in those pieces?

Ruth: Oh, I heard all the things that I did when I was learning those pieces and what they meant to me, surely.

Like, for instance, the opening thing they had is "Daisies."

Well, I can remember Mr. Rachmaninoff telling me about when he was a little boy, 14, that he and his cousins used to visit their grandma in the summertime in a place called Ivanovka, and they lived up in the hills.

This was in Russia.

And they would go to this very special place, and there was- They'd go outside in the morning to play and they would be high on a hill and they could look down from this high place and see beautiful daisies below, wherever they looked, big ones and little ones and yellow ones and white ones just everywhere.

And the girls would go wild and they'd make daisy chains and daisy things to put in their hair, and they'd play and run and just enjoy the hills, there at Ivanovka.

And that's what Daisies is all about.

There's one place in the music that has a D flat major chord that I think is magical.

It starts in the bass and it has this wonderful chord that goes all over the keyboard, and that's where I'm on top of the hill and I look down and see all these daisies and... just wonderful.

Rob: Now, where- I just heard you say that you, when you're playing that portion, you can see those daisies.

So, where are you, mentally, when you're playing?

Ruth: Well, I go to a special place inside me and I work there.

That's... that's where I create my image of what I want to show.

Rob: Where is that place?

Ruth: Inside me.

Rob: Guess what that place is?

It's talent.

Ruth: No.

Rob: What else is it?

Ruth: No, it's just- it's a place that everybody has inside of them, is- that they can go to when they need to.

That, what comes, it tells them- If you... you wonder a little bit, and you get your answers.

Rob: You're from Sacramento.

Ruth: Yes.

Rob: Born right here.

Ruth: That's right.

Rob: Um, first of all, that's just great.

And what do you want to say about Sacramento, or to Sacramento?

Ruth: Well, I like to talk about what my parents thought.

Rob: Mmhmm.

Ruth: They were proud of taking me in my carriage in front of the Capitol building, capitol of the state building.

There was a beautiful walk there that my father liked to push the baby carriage with my mother walking alongside, that they were very proud of their first baby and walking in Sacramento.

That's what I think about Sacramento.

I know that when I first went back, it was on a train and it was supposed to be about five o'clock in the morning and I couldn't sleep all night.

I wanted to be awake when we passed the Sacramento station.

I wanted to see Sacramento, but there was nothing to see at five o'clock in the morning, so I didn't see much.

Rob: Have you been back since then?

Ruth: To play, yes.

Rob: To play.

Wow!

How old were you when you played here?

Ruth: Oh, about eight or so.

I went up to play.

Yeah.

I played concerts...

I played everywhere.

Rob: Well, Sacramento is very proud of you.

Ruth: Thank you.

I'm proud of Sacramento.

Rob: My favorite thing is to talk to someone who has a... a long lens on life, to find out what it is that matters the most to them in the end, and what must be shared.

And I'm curious, to you, in this day, what... what matters most to you?

Ruth: What you give away.

What you can give to people is what matters most.

Rob: Wow.

Giving.

Serving.

Ruth: Mmhmm.

Well, you have to be useful in some way.

I don't care how it is, but you have to be useful and to be useful to somebody else, or if you can't give things, you give ideas or you give hope, or you give pleasure, or you... you give a smile.

You give.

The more you can give, the better off you are.

Rob: That is so true.

When you give, you live... Ruth: That's right.

Rob: ...and what I mean by that is it gives you life.

Ruth: That's it.

Rob: It's the unexpected blessing, right?

Giving... giving to others, and... and then, oddly, you feel the freedom it gives yourself.

Ruth: That's it.

Rob: What is the advice you'd like to give to young people today?

Ruth: Advice?

Rob: Mmhmm.

Ruth: Well...

Rob: On any topic.

Ruth: Give whatever you can.

Give what you think will be useful to the person to whom you speak, even if it's just a s- uh, a smile or something to prop them up.

Give something.

Leave behind something that's nice.

Rob: You really are, in my opinion, phenomenally, uh- I know you don't like "talented," so I'm going to say you are the best piano player I have ever known.

Ruth: Well, thank you!

Thank you so much.

You made my day.

Rob: You made mine.

Thank you, Ruth.

That was wonderful.

Ruth: Well, I'm so glad if you're pleased.

Rob: I'm very pleased.

You are truly a joy and I just want to thank you so much.

Ruth: Well, you conducted the interview.

Rob: Yeah, well, but you were the... you were the perfect- I tell you, Ruth, you... you have such a... you have such a... a inspiring way of living and you have really impacted me today to think about how I live, and I just want to thank you for that.

I am better for knowing you.

Ruth: Well, and I'm better for knowing you, so that's a good deal!

Rob: I hope you have a great day and, listen, on your next album, we're... we're going to be coming back to talk to you, okay?

Ruth: Hey!

Thank you.

Rob: Thank you, Ruth.

Ruth: Thank you.

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