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Rachmaninoff's Piano Legacy
| Article
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10773 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1993 |
2,990 Words |
| Author
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John C. Tibbetts
John C. Tibbetts, an associate professor of theater and film
at the University of Kansas, contributes regularly to national
music publications and is editor of the recently published
Dvorak in America.
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Pianist Ruth Laredo sifts through the contents of a small cardboard box and pulls out a dark brown wallet. "This belonged to Sergei Rachmaninoff," she says quietly, almost reverently, holding it up, "and you will see when I open it up why it's so special." She pauses while she extracts a photograph from an interior pocket. "I have been told this is the last picture taken of him." He died fifty years ago this month, on March 28, 1943.
The dim, unsmiling face in the photo appears old and drawn. "I don't think anyone's ever published this picture. It's a very, very personal thing."
Laredo's coffee table is covered with an array of other Rachmaninoff papers and memorabilia--his routing schedules, travel diaries, check receipts, photos, and concert programs. The desiderata of the touring concert artist. "Here you see all the things we pianists get to know so well," she says with a rueful grimace. "Look, here's a route book from his 1941 concert tours. It's all in his handwriting. You see, he's not just playing at the big halls in New York or Chicago. It's towns like Lafayette, Poughkeepsie, White Plains, Northampton." She points to an entry on one of the pages. "One thing you notice in these books are the indications, 'Rest Period.'" The handwriting slants diagonally downward. "Those were important. In those last years he was tired from the strain."
She picks up another piece of paper. "This one letter I particularly like. During one of his tours he wrote his agent: 'I'm here in Texas. What am I going to do? Do you expect me to lie here and do nothing? Please get me out of here!'"
Laredo laughs. The vivacious, dark-haired pianist is in a good-humored, albeit reflective, mood today. She says the mementos had been originally collected by Rachmaninoff's secretary, Nicholas Hondrosky. "I got the collection three years ago after my appearance on Charles Kuralt's CBS Sunday Morning," she explains. "The broadcast showed me playing the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto. Afterward, I was contacted by a woman in Pasadena, Maryland. She told me the collection had come into the possession of her father, and after his death it had been willed to her. I'm very moved to have it all in my possession now. It's like a legacy."
Acclaimed Recordings
Laredo's recordings of the complete Rachmaninoff piano works, originally released on
...
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