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5.3.2001 00:05
Ruth Laredo goes solo with a classic trio
It has been a while since pianist Ruth Laredo appeared in these parts. The last time was almost a decade ago with the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
This Sunday she's going it alone in a free solo program in Woonsocket, in a new classical series at the Stadium Theater that has already featured pianist Abbey Simon.
Although she has dropped off the local musical map, Laredo has been busy teaching, recording and performing. For the past 13 years, she has presented a series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that looks at some aspect of music history. This year she's been examining the relationship between Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn -- performing their music and providing a running commentary about how their lives intertwined.
It was Schumann who brought to light many Schubert scores, including his great C Major Symphony. Schumann found the scores in the attic of Schubert's brother. But it took the clout of Mendelssohn to get them published.
"If Schumann hadn't gone to Schubert's brother, no on would have known he wrote a symphony," said Laredo.
Laredo has also been touring a crossover program with fellow pianists and jazz greats Marian McPartland and Dick Hyman. She'll play Chopin and McPartland will counter with a Jobim number that has a similar tune.
"I'm working all the time," said Laredo, who's just released three new CDs featuring music of Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Samuel Barber. Those are out on the Sanctuary label and available on her Web site -- www.ruthlaredo.com
Female classical pianists are more commonplace these days. But 30 years ago, when Laredo became the first to record the complete sonatas of Alexander Scriabin, the eccentric Russian composer, and went on to issue all the music of Rachmaninoff, she was one of a handful of prominent women in the business.
Both composers remain near and dear to her heart. She is planning to include the enigmatic 10th Scriabin Sonata on Sunday's recital.
"He was a great composer, not just a nut," she said. "Well, he was a nut, but also a great composer."
Despite her love for ultra-romantics such as Rachmaninoff, Laredo was reared in the mainstream German repertoire under legendary pianist Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. For years she appeared at Serkin's Marlboro Festival in Vermont.
So it was more than a little touching when she was tapped not long ago to perform Beethoven's
Choral Fantasy
at Avery Fisher Hall. The Beethoven, with Serkin at the keyboard, was performed each summer to close the Marlboro Festival, sort of the event's theme song. And for many of those summers Laredo sang in the chorus.
So it was with mixed emotions that she performed the work the other day. She considers it a masterwork, but feels it "will always belong to Rudolf Serkin."
Ruth Laredo performs Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Stadium Theater in Woonoscket's Monument Square. Admission is free. Call 762-4545.
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