Pianist Paderewski steps up as prime minister of Poland

‘I felt that I should like to kiss the hands that had awakened a new world of music for me.' The year was 1888, the occasion was the Paris debut of a 27-year-old pianist named Ignacy Jan Paderewski. And the lady expressing her enthusiasm was far from being the only member of the audience whose head was turned by the young Polish artist's playing. ‘Maestro! It was sublime!’, a French duchesse emoted. ‘Now that I have heard you, you can die!’

- 

These reactions were typical of the impact made by Paderewski in the first two decades of his career as a travelling virtuoso. Audiences across Europe lapped up his ‘almost unparalleled powers of expression’ and in the US a cult of ‘Paddymania’ was born. Not since Liszt had a pianist so potently combined charisma with transformative artistry, in the process attaining superstar status.

But there was another side to Paderewski, one that he had long nurtured and enmeshed with his career as a performer: he was an ardent patriot, descended from Polish nobility. Kurilovka, the village he was born in, formed part of a Russian Empire which had swallowed up large portions of Poland towards the end of the 18th century, expunging the kingdom from the political map of Europe. Paderewski was one of many thousands with familial links to the old Poland who yearned for it to be a nation once again and enjoy its former independence.