Ruin and Memory is a piano concerto by the Canadian composer Howard Shore in 2010.
The work was commissioned by the Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation for the pianist Lang Lang in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the composer Frédéric Chopin.
[1] Shore later composed the cello concerto Mythic Gardens as a companion piece to the work.
[2] Ruin and Memory has a duration of approximately 30 minutes and is cast in three movements: The work is scored for a solo piano and a small orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, two horns, and strings.
These qualities are central to a piece whose starting point was the life and musical ethos of Chopin, as reflected in its late-Classical orchestration and an emotional restraint that, in the central Largo, suggests pathos more Mozartian than Chopinesque."