Word: paderewskis
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...Booper. Today, Paderewski has long since passed the peak of one of the most spectacular careers in the history of music. But the life of success that he looks back upon in the pastoral elegance of Riond Bosson was won with bitter years of discouragement and struggle. The son of a small-town Polish farm administrator, he felt as a child the knouts of Cossack riding whips, saw his father thrown into prison as a revolutionist against the Tsars. No infant prodigy, he worked until he was nearly 30 before attracting any public notice as a pianist. His early studies...
Even the great pedagogue Leschetizky, with whom he later went to study in Vienna, tried to discourage him from becoming a pianist, advised him to stick to composition. But Paderewski had to keep on. At 20 he had fallen in love with a fellow student at the conservatory and married. A year later his young wife had died, leaving him alone in the world with a hopelessly crippled son* to support. For years he roamed Europe teaching in schools and conservatories, earning enough to keep his son cared for and himself alive. He was always sure, in spite of gloomy...
...then the toast of half the theatres of the world, he confided his ambitions. Graciously she suggested a joint concert in Cracow, at which he would play and she would appear in dramatic recitations. The concert was given. Modjeska's name on the billboards acted like magic, and Paderewski was up the first notch in his laborious climb to fame...
...Style. Today, somewhat naturally, crotchety, old-worldly Pianist Paderewski looks back with fussy nostalgia to the times of his greatest triumphs. On the present-day world and its modern customs he wastes little affection. For him civilization has been steadily slipping since Victorian days. The only contemporary composer he cares anything about is Germany's Richard Strauss. Musical modernism he abhors. Says he: "Modern music ended with Debussy...
...practically spits: "It is killing music and musicians. I don't believe it [helps to make people more musical than they are]. It just robs them of any possible personal musical activity and of their musical keenness; it casts a spell of laziness on them." (Nevertheless, Critic Paderewski's first public performance on his coming U. S. tour will be a broadcast over the NBC-Blue network.) About jazz he is more tolerant. Says he: "To be frank, I detest it. But it can be used judiciously." Secretary Sylwin Strakacz, a confirmed swing fan, has long tried...