Ignace Paderewski

Biography

Ignace Paderewski was a pianist heard by Charles H. Steinway performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto No. 5 in Queen's Hall, London, in May 1891. Impressed, Steinway cabled New York to urge Paderewski's engagement for an American tour, comparing his prospects to Rubinstein, Adelina Patti, and Jenny Lind. Steinway Hall authorized the arrangement, opening a 25,000-franc credit account for Paderewski at the London house and guaranteeing him a net income of 150,000 francs from the tour, an arrangement considered extravagant at the time. Paderewski's American tour, beginning in October 1891, proved so successful that his box-office earnings doubled the guarantee, and he was given an additional 150,000-franc check, for total earnings of 300,000 francs, described as unprecedented. On a later tour his concerts grossed 1,250,000 francs. The text credits Charles H. Steinway with having discovered Paderewski, crediting both Paderewski's own genius and the Steinway house's promotional investment for the tours' financial success.

Highlights

• Heard and 'discovered' by Charles H. Steinway performing Beethoven's Emperor Concerto in London in May 1891
• Given a Steinway-backed American tour in 1891 with a 25,000-franc credit account and a 150,000-franc income guarantee
• Earned 300,000 francs on his first American tour and later grossed 1,250,000 francs on a subsequent tour

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. II (1913), pp. 177, 178.

Public domain.