PADEREWSKI

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 518, 22 November 1928, Page 14

PADEREWSKI

Tawny Lion Has Now Grown Grey

SOON A MEMORY

“Paderewski played at Queen's Hall last night —a night to be remembered with special care by the assembled thousands, with care and with piety,

since in the nature of things a night of Paderewski cannot but become an ever-greater rarity, and soon nothing but an unattainable memory,” states the “Daily Mail.” “The lion grows old. Once tawny, he is grey. The greyness spread last night to the audience, thanks to the extinguishing of all lights but a couple in the ceiling, which threw down pallid, lunar gleams. “The old claws can still attack in a royally leonine way. We were given piano-paying of the grand sort. Not infallibly accurate or always easeful in style, but supremely noble. “ Hew hard the marble from the mountain’s heart,” commanded a great poet. Paderewski seemed to be tearing music from the piano, to be hectoring the recalcitrant instrument, demanding of it at times more than it had in it to say. “Sometimes he wearied in his attack, but he returned indomitable. The roughnesses only testified to the great man’s spirit. When he chose to persuade softly, it was exquisite.”