Paddymania

Public admiration of Ignacy Jan Paderewski manifested itself in its most extreme with displays of wild enthusiasm at the sight of the artist and huge media interest in his personal life. Some fans even believed he possessed supernatural powers. The term Paddymania was coined in America, where he was referred to as Paddyroosky or simply Paddy.

‘Everyone was telling me (and I started to believe that) that I’d never be a pianist.’

Paderewski’s career took off thanks to his friendship with star actress Helena Modjeska (Modrzejewska) and studies with renowned teacher Theodor Leschetizky (Teodor Leszetycki). He shot to European fame after his debut at the Salle Érard in Paris, then took the world by storm.

Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova-Leschetizky was a prominent pianist of Russian origin, who married, and then divorced her one-time teacher Theodor Leschetizky. Paderewski studied with her and her husband in Vienna, and she championed his work. She premiered Paderewski’s Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 17 in 1889 at the Wiener Musikverein. She used her connections to arrange for Paderewski’s debut in Paris in 1888.

Laurence Alma-Tadema was a British poet, writer, and translator of Polish literature. She was a daughter of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, a Dutch academic painter and author of one of Paderewski’s first portraits. Ms Alma-Tadema was a friend of Paderewski and his wife Helena, whom she would often visit at their villa in Riond-Bosson, Switzerland. She campaigned for the Polish cause and supported the pianist’s in his efforts to alleviate the circumstances of the victims of war in Poland. She wrote for the English-language newspapers about the tragic situation on the war-ridden country calling for aid.

He was admired as a man who was able to earn a quarter of a million of dollars with his own hands during a tour that lasted less then half a year; he was admired as a pianist that was able to give 117 performances, including 109 recitals, between November (1891) and March (1892), while 18 of the concerts were held in New York itself.

Manru is Paderewski’s only opera and until now the only Polish opera ever staged at the Metropolitan Opera. It received an enthusiastic welcome from the NY audience. It was put on nine times, bringing the composer a financial success.

As George Bernard Shaw once said, Paderewski had an unprecedented career – two, actually. He was probably the only pianist who became a prime minister.