FROM POLITICS TO PLATFORM.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1401, 8 September 1923, Page 2

FROM POLITICS TO PLATFORM.

AN INTERESTING REVELATION OF HIS VIEWS AND IDEAS. (By M. Paderewski). People have been wondering whether I have returned to the concert platform for good, and whether I have any regret at leaving the political stage. I never made so great a sacrifice as when I abandoned music for five years and devoted myself to politics. For two years I never touched a piano, and though in the subsequent three years I had a piano close at hand, I very rarely used it. One can never do a thing thoroughly unless one devotes all one's attention and thought to it, and, accordingly, while I was serving my country I refused to do anything that would divert my attention and thoughts from the many weighty political problems that demanded a solution. Of course, as an American once told me, politics is like a piece of chewing gum on which you have placed your foot inadvertently—you cannot get rid of it; yet I have somehow managed to get rid of mine, and I mean to avoid it in the future. What is the secret of my success? Given energy, perseverance, and the power of working, as well as the love for one's work, one can arrive at any result. Discouraging. I started playing the piano at thfc age of three, and I took my first lesson from a violinist at the age of seven, but neither of my parents was musical, and I had to fight an uphill battle right through. At the age of 13 I joined the Conservatoire of Warsaw, but my professors did everything they could to discourage me. They said I had no talent for the piano, that if I wished to earn an honest living in the musical profession I would be well advised in dropping the piano and learning such instruments as the flute or the trombone.

However, I refused to lose heart, and under the able guidance of the father of Janotha, the Polish pianist, I gradually forged ahead, and at the age of 17 won the first prize in piano playing at the Conservatoire of Warsaw. I was very poor at the time, and so had to go on tour and play on provincial platforms to earn my living. Concert tours in those early days Were very different propositions from what they are to-day, and it was very difficult in small Russian towns to get pianos of any kind. I did not have them offered to me as I do to-day; it was my duty to go and find them. On one occasion the only piano that I find was so old and worn that the hammers stuck to the strings every time you struck a note, and I could see no way of improving them. Necessity, however, is the mother of invention, and so I finally arranged for a small boy to stand behind the piano armed with a switch, whose duty it was to detach them from the strings by the constant use of his switch, and so enable me to continue playing. I made good, however, and gradually rose to the top of my profession, being as much in love with the piano as I ever was. To be a good pianist a man must possess, in addition to powers of application and determination, physical strength and suppleness. Every day, whenever possible, I play for five hours, but I also devote two hours, one hour in the morning and one hour before going to bed, to Sandow's exercises. It may be interesting to know that before playing at a concert I do not eat anything for five hours. The mind must be absolutely clear to play well, and digestion interferes with that. Otherwise I do not diet —I eat. smoke and drink normally—but I had better not dwell on the last, as I am <oing back to America! I have had wonderful receptions everywhere since my reappearance; I was particularly touched at the concert I gave in Paris for the benefit of the French laboratories. Modern Mas'tlelr's. At the end of the performance every person in the audience got up and cried out "Merci!" and the scene of enthusiasm and gratitude that ensued I have never seen surpassed. The receipts obtained for the laboratories reached the sum of 1,200,000* francs, which is, I believe, a record for Paris. The record for any performance I have given, however, was made on March Bth at San Francisco. On this occasion I made nearly 25,000 dollars. In my opinion, no musicians, modern or ancient, approach Beethoven, Bach and Chopin. Of these three, Beethoven is easily first. Liszt I admire tremendously, and though I am not a great lover of modern music, I consider Rabot and Debussy great composers.