The Bösendorfer grand piano dating from 1882, on which Paderewski played while taking lessons from Theodor Leschetizky, a Polish-born teacher living in Vienna, is due to be gifted to the music academy at a ceremony on Saturday.
The ceremony will be graced by a recital given on the piano by Polish pianist Hubert Rutkowski.
Rutkowski is president of the Leschetizky Society, which purchased the instrument from a Hamburg-based German collector thanks to financial assistance from the Polish culture ministry and corporate sponsors.
Leschetizky was a Polish pianist, teacher and composer. Born in 1830 in Łańcut, southeastern Poland, he began teaching at the age of 15. After over two decades at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he settled in Vienna, where he established his own school. He developed his own teaching method, and many of his students went on to become great virtuosos. He died in 1915.
Paderewski wrote in his memoirs: “If I became a pianist, it is thanks to Leschetizky.”
A celebrated pianist, composer and statesman, Paderewski is remembered as a co-founder of Polish independence, which the country regained in 1918 after more than 120 years of foreign rule.
(mk/gs)