Ignacy Jan Paderewski

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Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Prime Minister Poland a. D. around 1935
Herb Jelita, Paderewski's coat of arms

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Herb Jelita, GBE (born November 6, jul. / 18th November  1860 greg. In Kuryłówka ; † 29. June 1941 in New York ) was a Polish pianist and composer , politician and freedom fighter .

During the First World War , thanks to his international popularity, he became the speaker of the Polish National Committee in the USA. Following a concert in the White House , he was able to persuade US President Woodrow Wilson to make the re-establishment of Poland one of its core demands for the reorganization of Europe (item 13 in Wilson's 14-point program ). As the first Prime Minister of the newly re-established Poland, he led the Polish delegation together with Roman Dmowski to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and signed the Treaty of Versailles for Poland . In 1925 he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in London .

Life

Paderewski

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was not only celebrated as a pianist around the world, but was also an outstanding composer. In 1919 he was appointed the first Prime Minister of Poland , which had just become independent . His land had been occupied and divided by Prussia , Austria, and Russia since the 1790s . During this time, Polish culture was ignored or ruthlessly suppressed. Nevertheless, Paderewski was able to unveil a monument (financed by him) in Krakow in 1910 to mark the five hundredth anniversary of one of Poland's most important military victories, which it won in the Battle of Tannenberg against the Teutonic Order. He gained even more public profile when the First World War broke out and he not only gave concerts across America to raise money for Poland, but also set up the Support Fund for Polish War Victims in Great Britain . Edward Elgar , who later (1916) wrote a symphonic prelude entitled Polonia and dedicated it to Paderewski, was also accepted into the board .

Childhood, youth and education

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was born in 1860 in the Russian-occupied Kuryłówka in the north of what is now the Ukrainian Oblast Vinnyzja as part of a Polish noble family of the Jelita coat of arms; his father Jan Paderewski was the manager of large properties and his mother Poliksena Paderewski, nee. Nowicka died just a few months after he was born. As a result, father and son very soon moved to a private property near Żytomierz , where the young Ignacy discovered his love for music at an early age. After his father's involvement in the January uprising in 1863 and his subsequent imprisonment, the Russian authorities withdrew his father's custody of him. Ignacy was adopted by his aunt. After his father's release from prison and his second wedding, he moved with his father and stepmother to Sudylkov near Shepetivka .

First Paderewski received private piano lessons. In 1872, at the age of 12, he applied to the Warsaw Conservatory and, with the help of the piano-making family Kerntopf, passed the entrance examination to study music with a major in piano. After successfully completing his degree in 1878, he received the offer to become a tutor of the piano classes at his alma mater and accepted. Two years later he married Antonina Korsakówna, who gave birth to their first son. In the following year, 1881, he and his wife learned of their child's severe disability, and shortly afterwards his wife died. This tragic fate finally led Paderewski to the decision to devote his life entirely to music.

Paderewski in his early career years

He moved to Berlin in 1881 and studied composition in the postgraduate course with Friedrich Kiel and Heinrich Urban at the Royal Academic University for Performing Music in Berlin . Three years later he made it into the master class of Theodor Leschetizky at the Vienna Musikhochschule, who was considered one of the most important and influential piano teachers at the time.

Pianist, composer and promoter of young talent

Paderewski, the pianist

In Vienna Paderewski celebrated his musical debut as a pianist at the age of 27 (1887). He soon enjoyed great popularity and his subsequent appearances (1889 in Paris and 1890 in London) were great successes. His piano playing aroused hysterical, almost immoderate, and exaggerated admiration, and this phenomenon was repeated on his tours of the United States in 1891 and 1892. But there were also audiences who were not particularly impressed. After the Polish-American pianist Moriz Rosenthal heard the young artist play for the first time, he said: Yes, he plays well, I suppose, but he's no Paderewski.

Ignacy Paderewski. Painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema , 1890

Ignacy Jan Paderewski was also a composer, especially many piano works. He became world famous in 1887 for his minuet in G major op.1.1 , which is the opening piece of his six-part (now forgotten) Humoresques de concert op.14 . His best-known work is the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17, composed in 1888. In 1901, his only opera, Manru, celebrated its world premiere in the Semperoper in Dresden . The US premiere followed in 1902 at the Metropolitan Opera . To this day, Paderewski's Manru is the only Polish opera by a Polish composer that has ever been produced at the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1896, Paderewski donated $ 10,000 to establish the Paderewski Fund for the Encouragement of American Composers to promote young talent in the United States. In 1898 he set up a comparable foundation in Leipzig .

Paderewski's mansion in Kąśna Dolna near Tarnów, acquired in 1897
gnacy Jan Paderewski and his wife Baroness de Rosen. (1900). Riond-Bossond Castle Park in Morges. Source https://www.e-periodica.ch/digbib/view?pid=dis-001:1911:15#639
Ignacy Jan Paderewski and his wife Baroness de Rosen. (1900). Riond-Bossond Castle Park in Morges

From 1896 to 1902 Paderewski lived in the Villa Riond-Bosson in Tolochenaz on Lake Geneva . As a second residence he used the one-story manor house with an imposing colonnade in Kąśna Dolna near Tarnów , which was purchased in 1897 and is a typical house of the Polish nobility. In 1899 he married his second wife Baroness de Rosen (1856–1934) as a widower. Together with her he emigrated to the USA in 1902. Two years later, the Paderewski couple gave concerts in Australia and New Zealand in collaboration with the Polish-French composer Henri Kowalski .

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Polish January Uprising in 1903, Paderewski said goodbye to the concert podium for a year in order to compose the first sketches for the Symphony in B minor op. 24 in his Swiss domicile near Morges . He headed it Polonia (Latin for "Poland"), probably based on the series of pictures by Artur Grottger published in 1863 , which was a direct reaction to the failed January uprising and represented the reality of everyday life and suffering in Poland in the 19th century . Paderewski worked on the symphony for five years and developed it into a 75-minute, monumental instrumental work that alludes to the Polish national anthem Poland is not lost yet . It can be understood as an announcement of Paderewski's political activities, since after the symphony he no longer composed, apart from a military anthem for the Polish Army in the USA in 1917. As if with the symphony "Polonia" he had said everything compositionally that could be said from his point of view. The public premiere took place on February 12, 1909 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Max Fiedler and was a great success. It was followed by important performances in Paris and London before his symphony was also performed for the first time in Warsaw in 1911.

philanthropy

Paderewski's Grunwald monument in Krakow from 1910

In 1910, Paderewski was able to unveil a monument (financed by him) in Krakow to mark the 500th anniversary of one of Poland's most important military victories, which it won against the Order of Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald .

California

On the eve of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Paderewski, at the height of his fame, bought the 810 hectare Rancho San Ignacio near the southern California town of El Paso de Robles . Ten years later he planted Zinfandel vines on his ranch and had the nearby York Mountain Winery produce his own variety in one of the best wineries between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Politician

The outbreak of the First World War prompted Paderewski to set up a support fund for Polish war victims in Great Britain in 1915. Edward Elgar , who later (1916) wrote a symphonic prelude entitled Polonia op.76 and dedicated it to Paderewski, was accepted into the board . It ends with a brilliant orchestral version of the Polish national anthem Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła (“Poland is not lost yet”).

Paderewski was so popular around the world that the music hall duo "The Two Bobs" landed a hit in all UK music halls in 1916 with their song When Paderewski Plays . He was a favorite of concert audiences around the world; women especially adored him.

In 1917 Paderewski became an active member of the Polish National Committee ( Polski Komitet Narodowy ) and, thanks to its international popularity, spokesman for this National Committee, so that the Entente soon regarded it as a representative body for the re-establishment of Poland . Soon Paderewski formed other social and political organizations. In April 1918 he met in New York in vain with leaders of the American Jewish Committee to negotiate a deal whereby Jews would support the re-establishment of Poland and in return receive equal rights in re-established Poland (as soon became clear, the strongly anti-Semitic leader had of the Polish National Committee Roman Dmowski sabotaged Paderewski's efforts).

William Orpen : The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors . Contract signing in 1919 at Versailles Palace .

Following a concert in the White House , Ignacy Paderewski persuaded US President Woodrow Wilson to make the re-establishment of Poland one of his core demands for the reorganization of Europe (item 13 in Wilson's 14-point program ).

Towards the end of the First World War Paderewski traveled to Posen ; With his public speech there on December 27, 1918, the Polish residents of Poznan began the ultimately successful Wielkopolska uprising against Germany.

In the re-established Poland, Józef Piłsudski was the new head of state. He appointed Paderewski as the first Prime Minister of Poland and Foreign Minister of Poland in January 1919 . In this function, Paderewski and Dmowski represented Poland, which had just been re-established, at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and signed the Treaty of Versailles for his country . At the conference he also tried to clear up the implication of the re-established Polish Army in the pogroms against Jews that existed at the time during the Polish-Soviet War .

Paderewski's extra-musical activities were no accident. They were preceded by the composition of his last extensive work in 1909, the symphony in B minor Polonia ("Poland"), which alludes to the Polish national anthem. It can be understood as the announcement of his following political fight for freedom to save Poland.

After Paderewski had lost the majority for his policy during his first year in office, however, he resigned as foreign minister on December 4, 1919 and took on the role of Polish ambassador to the newly founded League of Nations .

Return to music and filming

In 1922 Paderewski also ended his work as Polish ambassador to the League of Nations and returned to music. He held his first concert after a long concert break in New York's Carnegie Hall with considerable success. It also filled Madison Square Garden with 20,000 seats in New York and eventually toured the United States in a private railroad car.

In 1925 he was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in London and in 1926 he was admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts as a foreign member . In 1931 he was elected as an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

Soon he moved to Morges in Switzerland . After Piłsudski's putsch in 1926, Paderewski became an active member of the opposition to his Sanacja regime. In 1936 members of the opposition formed a coalition against Piłsudski in his villa. She was nicknamed Front of Morges after the name of the village.

Chopin: Nocturne op.15,2 (3:42), historical recording with Ignacy Jan Paderewski from 1937

In 1937, two years after the death of his second wife, Paderewski agreed to participate in a British film production that wanted to immortalize his musical talent and his art on the big screen. Lothar Mendes directed. The film celebrated its world premiere in 1937 in Great Britain under the title Moonlight Sonata and was renamed The Charmer in 1943 for US distribution ; the detailed film scenes with Paderewski's virtuoso performances on the piano are now considered a unique and very valuable contemporary document.

In November 1937, Paderewski began to teach his last piano student, Witold Małcużyński . He later won second prize at the International Chopin Competition .

Recent political activity

Paderewski's sarcophagus in St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Paderewski returned to political life. In 1940 he became head of the Polish National Council (advisory body of the Polish government in exile) and, as an 80-year-old artist, also re-established his support fund for Polish war victims. In order to donate money for this fund, he gave a few concerts (mostly in the United States). But meanwhile he was tormented by dementia : An anecdote reports that Paderewski did not appear at a big concert in Madison Square Garden with 20,000 seats because he thought he had already played the concert (he probably remembered his concert during the 1920s) .

death

Paderewski fell ill with pneumonia on June 27, 1941 while on a charity concert tour of the USA to raise money for Polish war victims. Despite the first signs of improvement and recovery, he died two days later at the age of 80 on June 29, 1941 at 11 p.m. in New York. His body was buried in Arlington National Cemetery . On June 28, 1992, his body was transferred to St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw .

music

Impact and Legacy

Paderewski's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame , Los Angeles

On the initiative of Polonia , the Ignacy Paderewski Foundations were founded in New York City in 1948 . Their aim is to promote Polish culture in the United States . Two other Polish-American organizations came into being in honor of the master: the Paderewski Association in Chicago and the Paderewski Music Society in Southern California .

Given the unusual combination of remarkable achievements as a world-class pianist and successful politician, Saul Kripke used Paderewski as a famous philosophical example in his article A Puzzle about Belief . Paderewski was so well known and loved around the world that in 1953 Motion Picture took over the piano teacher of the American comedy Die 5000 Fingers des Dr. T. his students say can he wanted from them "a Paderewski make".

US postage stamp in honor and in memory of Paderewski, 1960
4-cent version

On October 8, 1960, the United States Post Office Department issued two stamps in honor and memory of Paderewski. The People's Republic of Poland also honored him with postage stamps on at least three occasions. In 1960 Ignacy Jan Paderewski was even awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw has been the publisher of the Paderewski Edition for over sixty years , which has long been regarded as the authoritative edition of Chopin's works . One series of Steinway grand pianos is called “ Paderewski Sonderedition ”. In addition, streets and schools in many large cities in Poland and in Perth Amboy and Buffalo in the United States are named after Paderewski. The Bydgoszcz Airport (Bromberg) and the Music Academy of Poznan also bear his name. There are now two Paderewski music festivals in the United States, both of which are celebrated in November: the first festival has been held annually in Paso Robles, California since 1993, and the second since 2014 in Raleigh, Northern California.

Paderewski's Steinway & Sons - grand piano and portrait in Embassy's Blue Salon , Washington DC

Ignacy Jan Paderewski received numerous honors and prizes:

Works

Stage works

plant shape composed libretto premiere
Manru Opera in three acts 1901 Alfred Nossig based
on the story A Hut Behind the Village (1843) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski . 		Dresden ,
May 29, 1901

Vocal works (selection)

  • Cantata for the unveiling of the Adam Mickiewicz monument (1897–1903)
  • Military anthem Hey, White Eagle for the Polish Army in the USA (1917)

Instrumental works (selection)

Melody by Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1:40), historical recording from 1917 with S. Jacobson
  • Sonata for violin & piano op.13 (1885)
  • Humoresques de concert op.14 (1887)
  • Miscellanea op. 16 (1885-1896)
  • Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17 (1882–1888)

Symphonic works (selection)

Recordings / discography

Opera

  • Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Manru with Ivaniv (Manru), Czermak (Ulana), Krahel (Jadwiga), Rehlis (Aza), Zukowski (Jagu), Krzysztyniak (Urok), Kryczka (Oroz), Dutkowska (a girl), Kalinin (voice from the mountains), Czermak (violin), choir and orchestra of the Silesian Opera Wrocław, conductor: Ewa Michnik. Duration: 110 min, 2 CDs Dux Records, 2001
  • Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Manru with Janusz Ratajcak (Manru), Violetta Chodowicz (Ulana), Barbara Krahel (Jadwiga), Monika Ledzion (Aza), Jacek Greszta (Oros), Leszek Skrla (Urok), Lukasz Golinski (Jagu) and others. a .; Opera Nova Bydgoszcz choir and orchestra; Head: Maciej Figas; 2CDs Dux Records, 2006

Instrumental

  • Paderewski - Symphony in B minor (Polonia) . BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Jerzy Maksymiuk. Duration: 74 min, CD Hyperion Records Limited, 1998
  • Paderewski on Welte-Mignon Rolls . Ignacy Jan Paderewski (piano). Duration: 52 min, CD Dux Records, 2001
  • Paderewski - Violin & Piano works . Konstanty Andrzej Kułka (violin), Waldemar Malicki (piano). Duration: 41 min, CD Dux Records, 2002
  • Paderewski - Piano Sonatas, Variations & Fugues . Jonathan Plowright (piano). Duration: 80 min, CD Dux Records, 2006
  • Paderewski: Piano Concerto in A minor Op.17 / Polish Fantasy with Kevin Kenner, Orchestra of the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic, Conductor: Nałęcz-Niesiolowski, CD Dux Records, 2011

literature

Web links

Commons : Ignacy Jan Paderewski  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman Wapiński: Ignacy Paderewski. Wrocław 1998, p. 114.
  2. ↑ Paderewski, Ignacy Jan. Małgorzata Perkowska-Waszek, ed. Letters of Ignacy Jan Paderewski (A Selection)
  3. ↑ Harold C. Schonberg, The Great Pianists, p. 284
  4. ^ "Wine Talk" The New York Times, July 5, 1995
  5. ^ Roman Wapiński: Ignacy Paderewski. Wrocław 1998, p. 114.
  6. ↑ LEMBERG POGROMS WERE NOT BY POLES - Caused, Paderewski Says, by Ukrainians Who Opened Jails and Armed Criminals , The New York Times, June 2, 1919
  7. ↑ Oscar Levant: The Unimportance of Being Oscar , Pocket Books, 1969 (Neuaufl by GP Putnam 1968), pp. 125-126, ISBN 0-671-77104-3
  8. ^ Honorary Members: Ignacy Jan Paderewski. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 18, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Oscar Levant: The Unimportance of Being Oscar , Pocket Books, 1969 (. Neuaufl by GP Putnam 1968), pp 125-126, ISBN 0-671-77104-3
  10. ↑ Biography on polishamericancenter.org, accessed November 20, 2013
  11. ^ "Ignacy Paderewski (1860-1941)" . Government of Poland.
  12. ↑ Kripke, Saul. "A Puzzle About Belief" (PDF), p. 449. Last accessed: 2014-07-29
  13. ↑ 8-cent Paderewski . Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  14. ^ "Ignacy Paderewski" . WalkOfFame.com. Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
  15. ^ Paderewski's Piano ( memento September 27, 2009), Smithsonian magazine.
personal data
SURNAME Paderewski, Ignacy Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish musician and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Kuryliwka (Chmilnyk)
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1941
Place of death new York