Paderewskis piano technique

I understand that Paderewski didn't really develop a virtuoso technique until he was in his 20's which is highly unusual. I have never seen anything in print which details his ideas on piano practice. Is anyone aware of such information. It does not appear to be available in English, but perhaps something has been published in Europe.

He talks about it in his memoirs, which is out of print. However, you should be able to find a copy for sale used (as I did); try BookFinder.com. It's called, 'The Paderewski Memoirs,' by Paderewski and Mary Lawton, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in New York in 1938.

There is a short article by him in 'The Leschetiszky Method' published by Dover.

I remember a line from a BBC documentary on pianists, which attributed one of his contemporary pianists (can't remember who) as saying about Paderewski... 'he's very good, but he's no Paderewski' - i.e. his technique didn't really justify the devoted following he had!

I have read alot about this. If you read the early review of Paderewski they comment on his spectacular technique. This appears to be quite at odds with the techinque you often hear in his recordings. My suspicion is that Paderewski suffered a decline in his techinique due to a finger injury that is documented in his book as well to the fact that he stopped playing while he was Prime Minister.

A book I want to recommend to all of you who like classical music . Nicholas Slonimsky: The Handbook of Musical Invective. If you don't know about this book, it is a compendium of bad reviews of all the most famous composers we revere now. Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Wagner, Beethoven get skewered!

Hi, Mark.

Actually, the title is 'Lexicon of Musical Invective'