DE PACKMANN CONFESSES

Shannon News, 31 January 1928, Page 4

DE PACKMANN CONFESSES

WHY HE TALKS AND CKIMACKS. The 'Daily Chronicle' has persuaded De Pachmann, still "going at nearly eighty years, to tell why he talks when ho plays. "You arc a showman first and a musician afterwards.' 'How often has that accusation been made against me by critics In ' all parts of the world. They would have me march on to the platform, perhaps in a uniform instead of Chopin's inspiring old coat, stride to the piano, and without any adjustments of the stool sit down and play. Not a word may I speak until the concert is finished. If I am pleased, I must riot smile; if I am angry, I must hid-e my feelings! '"Nonsehss! One would he better to listen to a concert on an automatic piano! I lilc-e to gamble, and once, for a wager, I did not speak one word at a concert. Next day Mr. Powell received two or three hundred letters from disappointed people asking why I had been silent. They came to hear my music, but they also like to hear me talk, lyecause I can in that way explain the composer's thoughts. "A stockbroker from London once wrote to me asking why I indulged in 'preliminary fuss and adjustments of the piano stool 'at my concerts. He said that if- he fiddled with his desk as I fiddled with my stool his clients- would think him mad and never do business with him again! "Ah, my friend, I think you must . be one of those who would put a penny in the slot and turn on tire music! Art and business are very different. You would not fill the Albert Hall with people to see you fiddling with your desk —and 1 do not fill it because I wear an old coat or take half an hour to adjust my music stool. I fill it because years of practice have developed my genius until I can play perfectly. "I never consciously posed in my life," declares, the pianist, and doesn't he deserve to be taken at.his * word? As he says: "I turn the piano stool this way and that because it is "necessary. I can not interpret the music of the great composers until everything is to my liking. If the piano stool is too high I am distracted all the time I am playing, and my performance falls short of perfection. "Often my audiences take me too seriojjsly. I am not always Pachfflann the great musician and friend of Liszt and Wagner. Sometimes I am Patchmann the jester. I creep on to tHe platform and look at the great audience. 'What!' I exclaim aloud. 'I have been playing in Brit-

ain for more than forty years, and

you still come to hear m-e! Marvellous!' Then I turn to the piano and give a start. 'A piano! What is that for ? Surely you do not expect an old man like me to play? My fingers are stiff and I have not practised for six years!" "The audience is laughing. I like to hear them laugh, and get angry if they do not respond. I know that they have come, perhaps from a hurried luncheon, and have had to scramble for a bus in the rain. Naturally they are depressed. But when they laugh, then I can* take them irto my confidence, introduce them to Liszt and Chopin and Beethoven. "When people laugh they forget to sit straight up in their seats, and become more human.

"Most people think that music and humor can. not walk hand in hand. Why not? Wagner and many other great giants delighted in a little musical horseplay. So sometimes when I play I am merry, I hold my right hand high on a rest, and when it seems too late strike the note just in time. Then I turn round and smile at the shade of Liszt, saying. 'You dared not do that!' I do not boast when I say that to-day I am the only pianist with a great platform personality. My so-called eccentricities, my little jokes, my whirling of the piano stool, my smiles and my grimaces, they are all the expression of my personality. Paderewski is grand and majestic—but the others are all wooden. They are afraid to be human with music. It is the human touch that binds me to my music and my audiences. I love them ,and I want them to love me."