Scope and Content Note
The Ruggiero Ricci Papers document American violinist Ruggiero Ricci’s (1918-2012) eighty-year career from child prodigy to master teacher through music, correspondence, photographs and iconography, business papers, programs, posters and promotional materials, scrapbooks, and clippings. The collection spans the period 1890-2013, with the bulk of the material dating between 1927 and 2003, although materials for the years between 1954 and 1963 are limited. The collection is not comprehensive: there is little correspondence, with next to none in Ricci's hand, and there are no scrapbooks from 1954 to 1963. There is also little information regarding Ricci's relationship with composers, fellow performers, and business associates, and Ricci's extensive recording career is barely documented aside from published reviews.
Music scores and parts comprise the bulk of the collection. Many of the compositions have been annotated for use in performance, recording, teaching, or editing projects. Ricci's holograph emendations are scattered throughout the series. As expected, works by Nicolò Paganini are well-represented, as are those by Frédéric Chopin, Pablo de Sarasate, Franz Schubert, Henri Vieuxtemps, and Eugène Ysaÿe. Works by contemporary composers David N. Baker, Benjamin Lees, and Carlos Veerhoff are also included. Ricci's musical associates included many Central and South American composers whose works are also part of the collection: Argentines Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino, and Juan Carlos Zorzi; Brazilians Zoltán Paulinyi, and Heitor Villa-Lobos; Colombian Rafael de Castro; and Guatemalan Jorge Alvaro Sarmientos. An undated compendium of Ricci's music library is in the Biographical series. There is also manuscript music, some of which is fragmentary and unattributed. Any composer correspondence associated with a work is laid in with the piece.
The Correspondence series is quite small; the bulk of the items document Ricci's childhood career and concern bookings and travel arrangements. Significant correspondents from later in Ricci’s life include Louis Farrakhan, Igor Oistrakh, and Carlos Veerhoff. Additional composer correspondence is located within the Music Series. Biographical information about Ricci and his family is found in the Biographical Materials series. Biographies and articles written about Ricci provide insight into how he approached his performances and the technical aspects of violin playing. The series also includes Ricci's birth certificate and guardianship papers, in addition to documents from his military service. Several Ricci discographies and CD inserts provide information about his recordings. Scattered material related to Ricci's first wife Ruth, brother Giorgio, son Gian-Franco, daughter Riana, and father Pietro is located here as well.
The Business Papers series documents the management of Ricci's career through contracts and correspondence with agencies, as well as information about his itineraries and repertoire. This series also documents the planning for and editing of several recording sessions. Ricci's roles as violin competition judge and master class teacher are documented in the Subject Files series. These materials also contain information about his violins and Ricci's patent application for a device that alters an acoustic property of stringed instruments.
Ricci's long professional career is documented predominantly through programs, scrapbooks, and promotional materials, although some correspondence and business papers exist. The Programs, Scrapbooks, and Clippings series' span Ricci's entire career and provide information about his performances and repertoire over time. Materials in these series overlap, as programs and clippings are also included in the scrapbooks. Three scrapbooks are devoted solely to recording reviews. The small Promotional Materials series includes advertising materials and press kits generated by the various booking agencies that handled Ricci's appearances. The Posters series consists of over seventy large-scale advertisements for Ricci's concerts, particularly those in Europe and Asia.
Photographs in the collection consist of prints, negatives, and slides that document Ricci's entire performing career; these include portraits and numerous images of Ricci rehearsing and performing, conducting master classes, and judging competitions. Significant figures with whom Ricci was photographed include: Sir John Barbirolli, Eleazar de Carvalho, Ernst von Dohnányi, Carl Fürstner, Alberto Ginastera, Fritz Kreisler, and Carlos Veerhoff. On the personal side, there are images of Ricci with his parents, siblings, and other relatives, most of which are contained in a single album. A number of candid photographs provide a glimpse of Ricci's personal life, especially as a young man. There are also several folders of images of Ricci with his second and third wives.
The remaining series round up a variety of miscellaneous items in the collection. The Iconography series contains artistic representations of Ricci, such as cartoons, caricatures, and renderings in a variety of media. Most of these show Ricci performing. The Clippings series contains loose news items and reviews that were found separate from those in scrapbooks. The Realia series contains items relating to violinists important to Ricci: Bronisław Huberman, Fritz Kreisler, Mishel Piastro, and Eugène Ysaÿe. Of special note is a letter written by Ysaÿe to his wife during World War I. A 1905 photograph of the Ysaÿes is located in the Photographs series.