Music: In Rome

In a great theatre was assembled all the grandeur that is Rome. There sat the Queen Mother Margherita and, near by, stalled or boxed, silked or uniformed, the flower of Roman aristocracy. The assemblage lacked, it is true, the presence of Benito Mussolini, but he sent a message voicing his regret at being unable to leave the Chamber of Deputies.

Suddenly everybody in that notable company stood up, silent, then burst into applause. Before them bowed Paderewski, come back to Rome for the first time in 28 years. Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt he played; after every number, a storm of clapping. At the concert’s end, the Queen Mother herself stood up, smiled graciously at the pianist.

Next day, he went to the Vatican, called on Pope Pius. For more than an hour, in private audience the two reminisced about the days when they met in Warsaw, the Pontiff as Nuncio, Paderewski as Premier of Poland, both facing a situation black as the pit, from Pole to Pole.