University Daily Kansan Friday. Dec. 9. 1960
Pianist's Anniversary
English Professor Reviews 1939 Paderewski Concert
(Ignace Jan Paderewski, great pianist and great statesman, was born 100 years ago in Poland. On April 19, 1939, at the age of 79, he performed in Dallas duri-States. The writer of this article, now professor of English at KU, was in the audience that night, and recorded his impressions of the memorable event. The following article is reprinted from the Fort Worth Star-Tribune of Nov. 27, 1969.)
By Merrel D. Clubb
Fair Park Auditorium in Dallas, full to the last seat, suddenly became strangely quiet. It was a tense and somewhat uneasy silence. On this evening of April 19, 1939, he was later than usual in coming on stage.
Then slowly the center edges of the great curtains were pulled aside slightly, and through the black aperture stepped a man of average height, but bent with age and suffering. The famous red hair was thin now, but still long, though quite gray.
Old Greeting
He took the three steps necessary to reach the piano chair, and as of old bowed to the audience with the inimitable courtesy and sincerity with which he always greeted his vast (and', it must be admitted, musically polyglot) audiences. We all stood to honor him.
As the long applause of greeting ceased, he sat down at the keyboard, and began the Haydn "Variations in F Minor. Even at the beginning; the hands recalled to memory, for those who knew them, the recording of those variations and the Mozart "Rhondo in A Minor" which followed. In the Beethoven "Appassionata" the once stupendous left hand was particularly in trouble. But what memories he brought back to me of the first time my mother and I heard
him do that sonata in Los Angeles in 1917.
Chopin Works
When he returned to the piano after the single intermission, he was on surer ground with Chopin. All the same, the fourth ballade is just about as tough Chopin as there is. But he never lost his grip on the sublimity of the work.
Then a weirdly mysterious thing began to develop. The "B Major Nocturne" was singing with music from another world. The last entry of the main melody, which flutters in eight measures of trills and blends with the lovely melodies in lower voices, is not easy. He knew just what to do with the stubborn, but now warming and relaxing fingers. He played the trills slowly, but absolutely evenly. And the nocturne became a new piece that lingered to its ending in the very ecstasy of language. The mazurka and the Schubert "A-flat Impromptu" went as well as they had ever done.
Final Number
The ultimate miracle, though, one could never have forseen. His astounding choice for the final number on what he must have known was to be his last tour, was the Wagner-Liszt "Isolede's Love Death" (as the program printed it). To those who had ears not muffled by conventional generalizations about advanced age, all the old magic came back. And two other people must have been there with him in this music—the young and lovely wife who had died after the birth of his only child, and the noble lady who had always been at his side throughout the years of unparalleled acclaim, the political struggles in Foland and the glorious and imperial tours of the later
years, but who then lay far away in a Paris grave.
When Isolde's magnificent last phrases rose through the tingling keyboard and the living strings to their climax of complete resolution in the "Liebestod," it was not only that his heart had expressed eloquently his most exalted emotions, but that the very fingers had regained a life beyond life. Time and age had vanished.
Finally, he said goodbye in a medium that was personal to every one who had come to hear him — the "C-sharp Minor Waltz" and Schubert's second "Moment Musical."
Unique Concert
Others in that audience, listening more deeply, realized that not only in terms of character, but also in terms of music, the Dallas program of 21 years ago was superbly unique in the annals of the concert stage. If it was tragedy, it was sublimely thrilling tragedy, not only to contemplate, but to listen to.
That night in April 1939 proved to be "Farewell". This year, however, it is "Hail" once more, and not "Farewell" ever.
One hundred years ago Ignace Jan Paderewski was born in Poland, and the mighty heart of him will never die. It still throbs in the tremendous or magically delicate records to which we can listen, in the high international causes to which he devoted much of his life, and in his countless philanthropies bestowed through the great fortunes which he first earned, and then, one after another, lavishly gave away.
Whoso digeth a pit shall fall in Proverbs
A Political Opinion
The campus historians and political scientists are leading on the tally sheet for opinion polls.
Though these people do have the best background for answering University Daily Kansan poll questions it has been found that other members of the faculty have formed opinions on politics. For example: "Now, you all know what a carrot looks like. We cannot afford to go down to the grocery store to buy a carrot just so you can see what a tap root looks like. You can get a carrot yourself."
"Although Docking was not elected, we are still operating within his budget."
Journalism Grad Heads Editors' Group
This is how an instructor of Botany 2 laboratory views the effect of the budget on the Botany Department.
A KU graduate in journalism has been elected the new president of the Kansas City Industrial Editors.
KU's record for most consecutive wins is 18. The Jayhawkers compiled this streak from the final game of the 1907 season to the last game of the 1909 season.
John Pearce, editor of the Sheffield Ladle, publication of the Sheffield division of Armco Steel corporation, received his undergraduate and master's degrees from KU.
The Kansas City Industrial Editors is a group of 61 journalists working toward the strengthening of the profession of industrial editing. Publications represented have a combined circulation of 6,888,651.
Seeks Tattoo Eraser
TAIPEI. Formosa — (UPI) — Basketball star Li Nan-Hui, 26, was looking for a tattoo eraser today.
Li had the name of his girl friend, Hong Kong movie actress Yeh Feng, tattooed on his chest yesterday.
Last night he learned Miss Yeh had announced her engagement to a Hong Kong actor, Chang Yang.
GIFT SUGGESTIONS
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