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Paderewski once saved Poland’s fate through a momentary act of kindness. The Paderewski statue in Warsaw. (Image credit: Marek and Ewa Wojciechowscy/wiki/CC BY 3.0)
Paderewski(Ignacy Jan Paderewski) was a world-class architect at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.pianoOne of the masters, he served asPolandPrime Minister. However, beyond this illustrious background, Paderewski is best remembered for saving Poland’s fate through a moment of kindness.
One of Poland’s greatest pianists
Paderewski was born in a small village in Podolia. He loved music since childhood and later entered the Warsaw Conservatoire to study and teach there.
At the age of 25, Paderewski held his first solo concert. His piano had a lustrous tone, full of cadence, and unique charm. He once used the metaphor of the heart: the heart will beat at different speeds due to emotions. For example, Chopin played the piano from the heart. Like Chopin, he started playing from the “bottom of his heart”.
After that, Paderewski continued to tour in Europe and other cities. His passionate and dramatic playing style was very popular with the audience. It was a musical whirlwind that followed the Liszt and Paganini trends. , is considered one of the greatest Polish pianists after Chopin.
A pianist who plays “from the bottom of his heart”
In 1891, Paderewski toured the United States. Stanford University also wanted to invite the piano master to perform on campus, so it sent two student representatives to negotiate with Paderewski’s agent. The two parties agreed to pay an appearance fee of US$2,000 and hold a concert on campus.
After that, the student union raised money everywhere, but only raised $1,600. The day before the performance, two student representatives had to come to Paderewski to tell him about the difficulties in raising money and write an IOU. The student representative said: “We will definitely find a way to collect the remaining money as soon as possible and return it to you.”
After Paderewski heard this, he tore up the IOU on the spot and returned all the money, saying: “Because you love music so much, I will perform as scheduled tomorrow. Give the money back to the students!” I don’t want a cent.” The student representative was deeply moved.
President Hoover repays the kindness of a drop of water with a gushing fountain
28 years later, in 1919, Paderewski was elected Prime Minister of Poland. At that time, Poland was in dire straits and the people were short of food and clothing. He went around asking for help. The United States quickly agreed to support a batch of thousands of tons of food, and subsequently, many countries also donated funds to help.
Later, Paderewski met President Hoover, and Paderewski especially thanked the United States for taking the lead in generous relief to Poland. Hoover smiled and said: “This is what we should do. Maybe you don’t remember, but I have not forgotten that you were equally generous and kind to us when we couldn’t afford the money to invite you to the concert. ”
It turned out that Hoover was a student representative sent by Stanford University to negotiate the concert.
Source: Look at China Times
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