IV IN AMERICA
On November 17, 1891, eighteen months after his London début, Paderewski made his first appearance in New York. The success he had made in London naturally excited the curiosity of New York amateurs and critics and the pianist's first American recital attracted a brilliant audience. That does not mean that the special public was ready to fall on its knees and worship Paderewski. On the contrary, it seems as if the critics and amateurs of New York take a special pleasure in upsetting the verdict of London if they can, and Paderewski had to face an audience eager to compare its impressions with what had been written in London about this new star in the musical firmament. According to all accounts the same thing happened in New York as had already happened in London. The public immediately recognised the uncommon qualities of the new artist, and not having any hard-and-fast critical standards to employ as a test of his playing, and being impressed by the romantic simplicity of his bearing, hailed him as a great artist sans phrase. On the whole, the critics were not wildly enthusiastic. They recognised the talent of the new pianist, but they did not immediately label him as "great." The usual comparisons were made, not always to Paderewski's advantage. But while the critics were making up their minds the public decided for themselves. Two concerts with orchestra were given, and when Paderewski began a series of recitals, it was found that the Madison Square Garden Hall was too small to hold all his admirers, and the Carnegie Hall which has seating accommodation for 2700 persons and standing-room for nearly another 1000, had to be re-engaged. New York was even quicker to discover the greatness of the pianist than London. During his six months stay in America, Paderewski gave no less than 117 recitals. It was only to be expected that he would be engaged for a second tour in the following season. This visit, beginning in the autumn of 1892, was even more successful than the first. In New York he gave two orchestral concerts and nine recitals in the large Carnegie Hall, and from New York he began his triumphant progress through the States. No pianist had excited such a furore of interest. A paragraph in a newspaper of the West gives some idea of this. "Paderewski played on Monday evening in Cleveland, and the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company ran special trains, one from Sandusky and the other from Norwalk, for the benefit of the residents of those two cities who wished to hear him. The receipts equalled the enthusiasm. Practically Paderewski could rely on filling the largest concert-hall in America. The Chicago Auditorium realised £1400 for one concert. Sixty-seven recitals, given in twenty-six cities, brought in £36,000, the largest sum hitherto earned in America by any instrumentalist. Rubinstein had not touched the record made by Paderewski, although the Russian pianist, late in life, was offered £500 an evening for a tour in America." It is possible, however, that the £1000 paid by Mr. Robert Newman for an orchestral concert at the Queen's Hall was the largest fee ever received by Paderewski. These figures may seem a prosaic proof of the popularity of the pianist in America, but they certainly prove that the public genuinely admired the artist.
At the end of this second tour there was a regrettable incident at the Chicago World's Fair. Paderewski, at great personal inconvenience and considerable financial loss, had promised to take part in the two opening concerts of the series to be given at the exhibition under the conductorship of the late Mr. Theodore Thomas, for whom the pianist had a warm personal admiration. In America Paderewski had played on the Steinway piano, and the famous firm, not approving of the system of awards at the exhibition, were not exhibitors. The Board of Directors informed the artist that he must play on an instrument by an exhibiting firm, but Paderewski naturally declined to change his piano at the last moment. Quite a newspaper war arose, until the directors were made aware that an artist has some rights, and then they gave way. The incident is worth mentioning because it is often stated in private that great pianists are in receipt of salaries from pianoforte manufacturers in exchange for which they are bound to play on their instruments. However this may be with others it is not so with Paderewski. Here in England he invariably plays on an Erard, because the instrument is to his taste and the manufacturers have always done their best to adapt their pianos to Paderewski's requirements. The pianist himself, at the time of the Chicago incident, felt compelled to write a letter to a New York paper which had editorially expressed the opinion that it "was not very generous on Mr. Paderewski's part to sell himself to a piano firm." "I must emphatically deny," he wrote, "that I am bound by contract or agreement, either in writing or verbally, to the use of any particular make of piano. In this respect I am at perfect liberty to follow my convictions and inclinations, and this privilege I must be free to exercise in the prosecution of my artistic career. Throughout the wide world any artist is permitted to use the instrument of his choice, and I do not understand why I should be forced to play an instrument of a manufacturer strange to me and untried by me, which may jeopardise my artistic success." This dignified protest should be sufficient contradiction of the persistent rumours that Paderewski has been bound to play certain pianofortes. Those who understand the light in which an artist views the instrument he plays know full well that the use of a certain piano could not possibly be a mere matter of financial arrangement.
The success of Paderewski in America was indeed phenomenal. It rivalled that of Rubinstein, and was financially more brilliant. It became quite the proper thing, an American biographer has told us, to crowd on to the platform at the end of a concert and induce the pianist to play a few more selections in an informal way. In Texas whole schools marched many miles to hear him, and such was the interest aroused by his personality that crowds frequently waited at railway stations merely to see the train pass, in hopes of catching a glimpse of his remarkable countenance. Sometimes crowds would line the streets from his hotel to the concert hall and make it impossible for him to get past.
IGNAZ PADEREWSKI
From a drawing by Venino of New York, reproduced by the kind permission of Mr. Daniel Mayer