''Homage to Paderewski'' is an album of piano pieces by 17 composers, published in 1942 in honour of the Polish pianist, composer and statesman

Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...

Background

''Homage to Paderewski'' was commissioned by the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes in 1941 in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Paderewski's American debut in 1891. It was Zygmunt Stojowski who initiated the venture. He encouraged some composer friends of Paderewski's to write miniatures for the anniversary. However, Paderewski died on 29 June 1941, before the project was completed, and so the album, on its publication in 1942, became a posthumous tribute to his life and work. Twenty-one composers submitted 22 works, and 17 were chosen for publication. Of these 17 composers, only three were native-born Americans. The remainder had either settled in North America or were working there temporarily (

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

and Eugene Goossens were in the United States;

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the '' Storm Clouds Cantata'' ...

was in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

). Britten misunderstood the commission and wrote a piece for two pianos. It was published separately but is still considered a part of the overall homage. Béla Bartók did not write a new piece but provided a short suite of three pieces written in 1914–18.

Jaromír Weinberger Jaromír Weinberger (8 January 1896 – August 8, 1967) was a Bohemian born Jewish subject of the Austrian Empire, who became a naturalized American composer. Biography Weinberger was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary, into a family of Jewish or ...

's contribution also seems to have been composed earlier, in 1924. Ernest Schelling, a student of Paderewski, had died in 1939, but his widow submitted a late untitled composition, in the belief that he would have wanted to be involved. The pieces are all short, none taking more than four minutes to play and some just over one minute. The premiere recording of the complete work was made in 2011 by

Jonathan Plowright Jonathan Plowright (born 1959) is an English classical pianist. Life and career Plowright was born in Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire. He was a gold medallist at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where ...

, with Aaron Shorr in the Britten piece.

The music

References

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Sources

Hyperion Records

Homage to Paderewski
at Boosey & Hawkes Composer tributes (classical music) Compositions for solo piano Suites (music) 1941 compositions 1918 compositions Collaborations in classical music Compositions by Béla Bartók Compositions by Arthur Benjamin Compositions by Benjamin Britten Compositions by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Compositions by Bohuslav Martinů Compositions by Darius Milhaud Compositions by Vittorio Rieti Compositions by Zygmunt Stojowski Compositions by Jaromír Weinberger