Ignacy Jan Paderewski attracted women like a magnet. For him, they cheated on and abandoned their husbands, and used their connections to facilitate his career.
Paderewski became an idol of the Paris audience. Saint-Saëns sent him his photograph with an autograph and thanks for his beautiful performance, and the French press hailed him as the "most amazing" foreign pianist to have performed on the Seine (...). Perhaps the greatest pleasure for him was the opinion of a well-known French journalist and writer, who called Paderewski nothing less than "resurrected Chopin" (…).
The Pole quickly became l'homme du jour - the man of the day, a social sensation that all Paris was talking about. The hosts of the most splendid Parisian salons dreamed that the virtuoso would honor them with his presence and play a private concert. Anette Jessipow was still at his side, trying to introduce her protégé to French society, in which she competed with Mrs. Helena Gorska.
The man of the day and the sad duchess
But the relationship between Anetka and Ignacy was slowly becoming the past . An extraordinary, highly titled and influential woman appeared in his life - Duchess Rachel de Brancovan . The irony of fate made Anette herself push Paderewski into her arms, introducing him to her in the duchess's salon on Avenue Hoche.
At the time when the Polish pianist entered her house for the first time , the duchess was not a woman of her first youth, as she was in her 40s, but she still dazzled with her beauty and remarkable personality. She was the mother of three children:the eldest son, Constantin, and two daughters, Helena and Anna. Two years earlier, she had lost her husband, Grégoire Bibesco-Bassarab de Brancovan (...). She mourned, did not participate in any games, but still ran a salon in Paris (...).
Wherever he gave concerts, Paderewski was surrounded by a wreath of younger and older ladies staring at him as if at a deity.
The Duchess also gave exceptionally sumptuous dinners, attended by the cream of the then Paris and, of course, Paderewski. (…) Even the most eminent guests were unable to dispel the mourning and despondency of the Duchess, which overwhelmed her after the death of her beloved husband. It was only the young Polish musician who was introduced to her by Anette Jessipow one day and who intrigued the Duchess right away, not only because he interpreted the works of her beloved Chopin in such an original way.
The musician was handsome, extremely intelligent and enjoyed great success. In addition, his tragic past:the difficult path to fame, the death of his wife and the illness of his son, all of this aroused warm feelings in the duchess. As it turns out , her adolescent daughter, 12-year-old Anna, was also under the charm of a handsome Pole. (…) Unfortunately, Miss de Brancovan could only dream about it. When she saw the Polish virtuoso for the first time, she was a child, but she remembered her youthful feeling for a long time.
Friendship or love?
For now, Ignacy's "pure, strong, searching and proud gaze" penetrated her mother's heart. The Pole was so successful in dispelling the duchess's sorrows that she asked him to visit her as often as possible. When he was leaving, she wrote him letters entitled cher Magicien , literally begging him to return to Paris as soon as possible:“Can I count on your presence in September? How happy I would be! And how anxiously I await this good news. ”
The text is an excerpt from the book by Iwona Kienzler “Ignacy Paderewski. A favorite of women ”(Bellona, 2022).
She herself was also not indifferent to Paderewski, who was almost an everyday guest in her living room, and Parisian gossipers wondered what the two of them had in common:friendship or love. The Duchess's letters, preserved to this day, are an expression of almost idolatrous admiration for the Polish artist (...). Over time, the beautiful aristocrat made the young man understand that she was counting on something more than friendship:
You write to me that he is playing now Chopin's fantasy and that you think about me at every moment. Ah! If I took these sweet words literally, or rather on the note, how happy I would be, but let them make the Lord think more of me. I dare not delude such a charming hope:everything would be sweet to me if it were not illusory. In another letter she wrote: I assure the Lord that my heart [...] does not sleep and that the feelings that the Lord has awakened in me will never fall asleep.
Wreath of younger and older ladies
Ultimately, the Duchess's dreams came true, and the friendship in March 1890 turned into a passionate romance that, despite the "hours of pretending," as Rachel herself called this love conspiracy, became a public secret. Of course, the couple met in secret, using the methods that elegant ladies who welcomed their lovers in the absence of their husbands had already developed in the eighteenth century, but all Paris knew what they had in common (...). Rachel's letters from this period are full of passionate confessions suggesting that the couple were exceptionally good sexually.
The musician was handsome, extremely intelligent and enjoyed great success.
The news of Ignacy's love conquests finally reached his father. Having found out what "successes" his son is in the women's alcoves, he fell into genuine terror. (...) Jan Paderewski decided to convince his dissolute son to reason, and because he himself could not go to Paris, he decided to ask Edward Kerntopf for help, so he picked up a pen to inform his friend:"One gentleman in Juzewo read to me that some critic wrote, that Mr. Padarewski [sic!] appeared on the Seine, but swallows followed him, some princess B. and two Spanish women ”(…).
We know who was Duchess B., but where did the Spanish women mentioned by John come from? Perhaps some Spanish ladies actually appeared in the circle of admirers of the Polish virtuoso, because there were many of them in his surroundings, wherever he gave concerts, he was surrounded by a wreath of younger and older ladies staring at him like a deity.
Pretend romance
One of them decided to take back the Pole, Duchess de Brancovan, and did not choose any means. The spice of the case is added by the fact that Rachel's rival was related to her, because she was the wife of her brother-in-law, second son Jerzy Demetrios.
Duchess Aleksandra Bibesco, because she was that determined admirer, was as titled as Duchess de Brancovan, and among her relatives was the Serbian queen Natalia. She ran a salon where frequent guests were representatives of the then Parisian cultural elite . It was an exalted woman, a mystic who, to the considerable distress of her guests, considered herself an excellent pianist meanwhile, her talent was, to say the least, highly debatable (...).
However, Aleksandra, just as she was convinced of her own great piano talent, deeply believed that she would manage to recover Paderewski from her sister-in-law. She showered him with countless letters in which she wrote about God, Art and Love. She decorated the letters with her own drawings of flowers, but to her disappointment the addressee, who knew the author's true intentions, often sent them back unread.
What's more, she managed to give the impression that she had something in common with Paderewski because whenever someone spoke his name in her presence, she would sigh, clutching her heart and lifting her eyes to heaven. When she was near him, she passed out. No wonder Paris was shaking with rumors that the pianist was romancing two aristocrats, and in addition they were related to each other. In the case of Duchess Bibesco, however, these were only rumors, because despite the constant efforts of Aleksandra, she never managed to win the favor of a handsome Pole (...).
Two lovers in hand
Thanks to the successes achieved in three Paris seasons, in the period 1888–1890, Paderewski's position in the music world also increased (...). He was also received in the homes of French aristocrats, where he often gave concerts, which was certainly helped by the connections of his mistress, Duchess de Brancovan. Additionally, rumors of their romance increased his popularity.
Paderewski acted like a magnet on women (in the photo with his second wife, Helena Górska)
During his stay in Paris, Paderewski also maintained relations with a tried and tested pair of friends, Helena and Władysław Górski. (...) During this period, something went wrong in the Górski's marriage . Helena, so far full of cheerfulness, began to fall into a more and more depressed mood bordering on depression. Once she was the one who advised and comforted Paderewski, but now the roles have changed and it is the musician who had to comfort her. And Górski, oblivious to the oath of allegiance which he had made years ago to God and Helena, had a good affair with the Duchess of Bibesco who, recognizing that Paderewski was beyond her reach, sought happiness in the arms of his friend.
It was then that the feeling between Mrs. Górska and Paderewski gradually began to evolve from friendship to love, which did not prevent the musician from maintaining a relationship with the duchess. The artist's biographer, Adam Zamoyski, even claims that Paderewski had an affair with both women at the same time, but somehow he kept it a secret and the ladies did not suspect anything. Ultimately, Helena came out victorious (...).
Source:
The text is an excerpt from the book by Iwona Kienzler “Ignacy Paderewski. A favorite of women ”(Bellona, 2022).
