Paderewski Sails

A great ocean liner stood at her Manhattan pier one night last week waiting for a passenger who had already delayed the sailing time two hours. The passenger was an old man who had refused to complicate his busy life by hurrying. Leisurely he changed his clothes while the ship waited, leisurely chatted with a little girl of ten. Then through cheering crowds he pushed his way to a limousine, permitted himself to be whisked, while a guard of motorcycle policemen waved traffic aside, to the waiting S.S. Paris.

Pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski is probably the only musician who could command such consideration from New York City authorities and a great steamship line. But Paderewski has been a figure greatly honored this year. He is 70 and early last season he underwent an appendectomy which seriously threatened to end his career (TIME, Oct. 7, 1929). This year he returned to the U. S. (traveling for the first time without Madame Paderewska who is incurably ill in Switzerland), made a nation-wide concert tour, played 80 concerts to jam-packed houses of people who suspected they were hearing him for the last time.

Paderewski's last three U. S. appearances were the high spots of three spring festivals: in Ann Arbor, Mich., Evanston, 111., Westchester County, N. Y.* It was the Westchester engagement that made him late for S.S. Paris. Just previously he had surprised people by announcing that he would return for four months next year. In his season's valedictory he said: "This country is experiencing a gratifying cultural development manifested in the increased attendance of young persons at concerts. . . . There have been a few moments when I have known complete satisfaction, but only a few. I have rarely been free from the disturbing realization that my playing might have been better. . . ."

*Interesting also last week was the Festival of American Music in Rochester, N. Y., given to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the School of Music, founded by Cameraman George Eastman.

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