Everything about Ignacy Jan Paderewski totally explained
Ignacy Jan Paderewski GBE (
November 18,
1860 -
June 29,
1941) was a
Polish pianist,
composer,
diplomat and politician, and the third
Prime Minister of Poland. He is sometimes referred to by the German version of his name
Ignaz Paderewski.
Biography
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born in the village of
Kurylovka (Kuryłówka) in the province of
Podolia, then in the
Russian Empire (now
Ukraine). His father was an administrator of large estates. His mother, Poliksena (
née Nowicka), died several months after Paderewski was born, and he was brought up by his distant relatives.
From his early childhood, Paderewski was interested in music. Initially he took piano lessons with a private tutor. At the age of 12, in 1872, he went to
Warsaw and was admitted to the Warsaw Conservatorium. After graduating in 1878, he was asked to become a tutor of piano classes at his
alma mater, which he accepted. In 1880 Paderewski married Antonina Korsakówna, and soon afterwards, their first child was born. The following year, they discovered that the son was handicapped; soon afterward, Antonina died. Paderewski decided to devote himself to music, and in 1881 he went to
Berlin to study music composition with
Friedrich Kiel and
Heinrich Urban. In 1884 he moved to
Vienna, where he was a pupil of
Teodor Leszetycki. It was in Vienna that he made his musical debut in 1887.
He soon gained great popularity and his subsequent appearances (in Paris in 1889, and in
London in 1890) were major successes. His brilliant playing created a furor which reached to almost extravagant lengths of admiration; and his triumphs were repeated in the
United States in 1891. His name at once became synonymous with the highest level of piano virtuosity, and society was at his feet.
In 1899 he married
Baroness de Rosen.
He was also a substantial composer, including many pieces for piano. In 1901 his sole opera
Manru received the world premiere at
Dresden, then it had American premiere in 1902 at the
Metropolitan Opera and to this day remains the only
Polish opera by a Polish composer ever performed there.
Paderewski, his wife, entourage, parrot and Erard piano travelled to Auckland, New Zealand from Sydney aboard the steamer Zealandia on August 28, 1904.(NZ Herald, 29/08/1904, p.5). He travelled to Wellington by train and gave a concert there on September 12. (Otago Daily Times, 13/09/1904, p.2).
He was also active in pursuing various philantropic causes. In 1910 he funded the erection of the
Battle of Grunwald Monument in Kraków, in commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the event. In 1913, Paderewski settled in the United States.
During
World War I, Paderewski became an active member of the
Polish National Committee in
Paris, which was soon accepted by the
Entente as the representative of
Poland. He became a spokesman of that organisation and soon also formed other social and political organisations, among them the
Polish Relief Fund in
London.
In April 1918, he met in
New York City with leaders of the
American Jewish Committee, including
Louis Marshall, in an unsuccessful attempt to broker a deal whereby organized
Jewish groups would support Polish territorial ambitions in exchange for support for equal rights. However, it soon became clear that no plan would satisfy both Jewish leaders and
Roman Dmowski, head of the Polish National Committee.
At the end of the war, with the fate of the city of
Poznań and the whole region of
Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) still undecided, Paderewski visited Poznań. With his public speech on
27 December 1918, the Polish inhabitants of Poznań began a military uprising against
Germany, called the
Greater Poland Uprising.
In 1919, in the newly independent Poland, Paderewski became the
Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs (January, 1919 - December, 1919), and he thus represented Poland at the
Paris Peace Conference. In the summer of that year, he signed the
Treaty of Versailles, which restored the territories of Greater Poland and Pomerania around the City of Gdańsk to Poland. Although this fell short of what the Polish delegates had demanded, these territories provided the core of the restored Polish state.
After being abandoned by many of his political supporters, Paderewski handed
Piłsudski a letter of resignation on
December 4,
1919, whereupon he took on the role of Polish Ambassador to the
League of Nations.
In 1922 he retired from politics and returned to his musical life. His first concert after a long break, held at
Carnegie Hall, was a significant success. He also filled
Madison Square Garden (20,000 seats) and toured the United States in a private railway car. His position as Prime Minister of Poland lionized his career.
Soon he moved to
Morges in
Switzerland. After
Piłsudski's coup d'état in 1926, Paderewski became an active member of the opposition to
Sanacja rule. In 1936 in his mansion a coalition of members of the opposition was signed; it was nicknamed the
Front Morges after the name of the village.
By 1936, 2 years after the death of Mme. Paderewska, Paderewski consented to appear in a film presenting his talent and art on the screen. This proposal had come at a time when Paderewski didn't wish to appear in public as described by Aniela Strakacz. However, the film project did proceed and the selected film script was rather an opportunity to feature Paderewski. The alternate choice had been more
Polish in theme. Therefore
Moonlight Sonata would be filmed throughout 1936.
In November 1937 Paderewski agreed to take on one last pupil for piano. This musician was
Witold Małcużyński, who had won second place at the Chopin Competition. First place had been awarded to the Russian, Uninski.
After the
Polish Defensive War of 1939 Paderewski returned to public life. In 1940 he became the head of the
Polish National Council, a Polish
parliament in exile in
London. The eighty-year-old artist also restarted his
Polish Relief Fund and gave several concerts (most notably in the United States) to gather money for it. However, his mind wasn't what it had once been: scheduled again to play Madison Square Garden, he refused to appear, insisting that he'd already played the concert, presumably remembering the concert he'd played in the 1920s.
Today, every major city in Poland has a street named after Paderewski. There are also streets named for him in
Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and
Buffalo, New York. In addition, the
Academy of Music in Poznań is named after him.
The
Polish Museum of America in Chicago received a donation of the personal possessions of Ignacy Jan Paderewski following his death in June 1941. Both Ignacy Paderewski and his sister, Antonina Paderewska Wilkonska were enthusiastic supporters and generous sponsors of the Museum. Antonina, executor of Ignacy’s will, decided to donate these personal possessions to the Museum. In addition, the management of the Buckingham Hotel in New York City, where Ignacy spent the last months of his life, allowed Antonina to obtain the furnishings from the suite of rooms he'd occupied. These furnishings were also donated to the Museum. With the assistance of Ignacy’s personal secretary, the furnishings and his personal mementos were arranged for public display in the room that had been the first display room of the Museum in 1937. This revised space was officially re-opened with a special dedication ceremony on November 3, 1941, the date that would have marked Paderewski's 81st birthday.
Many believe that the Paderewski Room is haunted by Paderewski himself. The staff recounts a number of incidents related by a number of people, including the cleaning crew who have claimed to experience ghostly-related phenomena late at night. The Ghost Research Society was even brought in by the museum staff to investigate these claims.
In 1948 the Ignacy Paderewski Foundation was established in New York, on the initiative of the Polish community in the USA, York, to promote Polish culture in America.
Due to the unusual combination of the notable achievements of being a world class pianist and a successful politician, Paderewski has become a favourite example of philosophers, and is often discussed in relation to
Saul Kripke's "A Puzzle about Belief" for having a name that denotes two distinct qualities, that of being a politician and that of being a pianist.
Medals and awards
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