Ignacy Paderewski

Ignacy Jan Paderewski , sometimes francized in Ignace Paderewski , born in Podolie the November 6th 1860 and died in New York the June 29th 1941, is a Pianiste, Compositeur, diplomatic Politician and Polish.

Biography

Ignacy Paderewski was born with Kuryłówka, village in the old Polish province of Podolie, from now on located in Ukraine, in a family of Polish minor nobility. It had a sister, Antonina, its elder two years, of which there will remain all its very close life and who will come to settle with him after his own widowhood and the loss of his only son, who will accompany it at the time of his last “patriotic” stay in the United States in 1940-1941 and which will die three months after him.

Having lost his/her mother whereas he was still infant, Ignacy Paderewski is raised by his/her father, who follows the occupation of land administrator, and who very early recognizes the musical talents of his son. He enters to the academy of Warsaw at the twelve years age, intending himself initially for a career of professor of music, and not making watch at that time particular virtuosity. What does not prevent it from being graduate in 1879.

It Marie in 1880, at the twenty years age, with Antonina Korsak, but loses his wife in October 1881, a few days after the birth of their son Alfred, born disabled person, who will die at the twenty years age in 1901.

These family misfortunes lead Paderewski to be thrown on work to drown its sorrow. Thus it makes two stays with Berlin in 1881 and 1883, during which it studies the art of the musical composition and crosses in particular Richard Strauss, then with Vienna, in 1883, where he is the pupil of Theodor Leschetizki.

After one last year with Strasbourg as professor of music to the Academy, in 1885 - 1886, it starts a career of pianist in concert, by occurring for the first time in public in Vienna in 1887, then with Paris in 1888. At the time of a concert in the Érard room to which in particular Tchaïkovsky assists, he is recalled on scene one hour during. He also occurs with London in 1890. Its virtuosity causes a certain passion of the public, which makes him a series of triumphs during a hundred recitals to the the United States in 1891.

In 1897, it acquires, in Suisse, of “Riond-Boson”, splendid residence located near Morges, in which it remains between its rounds of concert performer. May 31st 1899, it marries a widow, Helena Górska, baroness of Rosen, which is devoted fully to its role of housewife and contributes actively to the success of many receptions, where is invited the fine flower of the artistic mediums. The property is also a place of stay for various artists, among whom Igor Stravinsky. In parallel, the baroness works discreetly in the social domain, creating for example a school of poultry farming for Polish young girls. The second wife of Paderewski ceases her public activities in 1929, her mental health being degraded, and dies in 1934.

After the acquisition of Riond-Boson and its remarriage with the baroness of Rosen, Paderewski rarefies its public appearances, preferring to devote itself to the musical composition, primarily parts for piano. It also composes a opera, Manru , which is played Dresden on May 29th 1901. It also buys, in 1913, a wine ranch of 2.000 bitter (8 km ²) called San Ignacio , with Paso Robles (California), in which it initially imagined to remain “to rest”, but to which it devotes sufficient efforts and means to obtain a reward in a Californian wine demonstration at the beginning of the Années 1920.

Its engagement for the cause of a Poland free and democratic starts to appear in 1910, initially by two important gifts for the construction of a concert hall to Warsaw and the erection of a monument dedicated to Frederic Chopin, at the time of the centenary of its birth, then by another important financial contribution for the erection of a statue of the king Ladislas II Jagellon, at the time of the fifth centenary of the battles of Tannenberg during which the king had gained a decisive victory over the teutonic knights.

In 1914, it founds with Vevey, with Henryk Sienkiewicz, a “Central committee of help for the war victims in Poland”, from which it ensures the vice-presidency during the first year, for then becoming its representative with the the United States, until the independence of Poland. It is at the same time, in January 1917, that it meets the US president Woodrow Wilson, to which it gives a report on Poland, in which it pleads for free and democratic Poland, but also viable by the free provision of a broad access to the the Baltic. The US president, in its speech of January 8th 1918, pronounced in front of the Congress, includes the independence of Poland among the Fourteen points of Wilson: “ An independent Polish state should Be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should Be assured has free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should international Be guaranteed by covenant. ” (“an independent Polish State will have to be made up, which will include the inhabited territories of indisputably Polish populations, to which will have to be assured an free access and sure with the sea, and whose political and economic independence and the Territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international engagement. ”)

Always starting from 1917 and the United States, Paderewski provides the functions of representative of the Polish National committee (provisional government in exile sitting at Paris), without counting a work of organization and coordination of battalions of Polish volunteers then sent to the combat on the French face.

At the end of the First World War, whereas the fate of the town of Poznań and all the area of Large-Poland remains still dubious, Paderewski goes there and, on December 27th 1918, harangue crowd with such a conviction that causes a popular insurrection against the Germany, which always occupied the area.

In January 1919, he becomes Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the lately independent Poland, functions which he occupies until December of the same year. For this reason, he is chief of the Polish delegations which sign the treaties of Versailles on June 28th 1919 and of Saint-Germain-in-Bush hammer on September 10th 1919. Having left the government, it still renders many services as diplomat to the service of Poland, for example in various International Conferences, from July to December 1920, but also, of September 1920 at May 1921, as chief of the Polish delegation near the Société of the Nations.

It takes again its activity of pianist during the year 1922 and carries out a certain number of international rounds until the medium of the Années 1930. It also takes part in the film Moonlight Sonata , left in 1937, where it interpreted its own role.

The threats of war specifying itself in Europe, it founds in 1936 a political movement called the “Face of Morges”, in the hope to try to save the democracy in Poland, setting with evil by the dictatorship of the marshal Piłsudski (1926 - 1935).

After the coordinated invasion and Poland in September 1939 divides it by the Germany Nazi and the Soviet Union, Paderewski takes the head, in December 1939, of a Polish National council in exile, function which it occupies until his death. September 23rd 1940, it leaves the Suisse to go to be established in the United States, and to begin again there, in spite of its advanced age and a fragile health, its activities of diplomat and speaker, endeavouring to galvanize external resistance by conference series through the United States, which exhausts it and during which it contracts a pneumonia of which it dies on June 29th 1941 with New York, one week after his last made speech with Oak Ridge (New Jersey).

It rested during cinquante-un years with the Cimetière of Arlington, before its skin is not solemnly transferred, on July 5th 1992, in the Cathédrale Midsummer's Day of Warsaw, where its remainders were buried during national funeral, in the presence of the presidents American George Bush and Polish Lech Wałęsa.

Decorations

Poland: Virtuti Militari
France: Legion of honor
the United Kingdom: Order of the British Empire

Distinctions

Doctor honoris causa

of the university of Lwów (1912)
of the university of Cracow (1919)
of the university of Poznań (1924)
several universities of the United States

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