A mother, wishing to encourage her son’s progress at the piano, bought tickets to a performance by the great Polish pianist Ignacy Paderewski. When the evening arrived, they found their seats near the front in the concert hall and eyed the majestic Steinway waiting on the stage. Soon the mother found a friend to talk to, and the boy slipped away.
At eight o’clock, the lights in the auditorium began to dim, the spotlights came on, and only then did they notice the boy – up on the piano bench, innocently picking out “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” His mother gasped in shock and embarrassment but, before she could retrieve her son, the master himself appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard.
He whispered gently to the boy, “Don’t quit. Keep playing.” Leaning over, Paderewski reached down with his left hand and began filling in the bass part. Soon his right arm reached around the other side and improvised a delightful obligato. Together, the old master and the young novice held the crowd mesmerised with their blended and beautiful music.
Read more about Paderewski in the story “An act of kindness” elsewhere here.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was a Polish pianist and composer, politician and spokesman for Polish independence during World War 1. Being an unusual combination of a world-class pianist and a successful politician, he achieved remarkable milestones as the Prime Minister of Poland for just 10 months and was a great philanthropist all his life.
Steinway is a prominent piano company known for making pianos of high quality and for inventions within the area of piano development. The company has been granted 126 patents in piano making; the first in 1857. The company’s share of the high-end grand piano market consistently exceeds 80 per cent. Steinway pianos are sold by a worldwide network of around 200 authorised Steinway dealers who operate around 300 showrooms. In 2015, Steinway made its 600,000th piano; it took 6,000 hours of work over 4 years to make the piano. It was priced at $2.4 million.
Image of the first postage stamp of Paderewski issued by Poland in 1919, courtesy: https://themusicstamps.com/