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Messrs. Steinway & Sons,

New York.

Gentlemen:

The supreme qualities of your instruments have been for many years universally recognized. Public and individuals, amateurs and artists have been looking upon your pianos as upon a standard of perfection. Whenever perfection is attained progress is stopped, for there is no room for climbing when the summit has been reached. And yet, in your case, this law of nature seems to have been defied. Having played Steinway pianos, after a long interval, in many concerts, during a season of unusually sudden and unfavorable climatic and atmospheric changes, I feel obliged to declare, and I do it most emphatically, that you have realized an astonishing progress. To the former qualities, now magnified, intensified, you have added an entirely new one, a quality which has been considered unimportant, superfluous, almost incompatible with the character of tone: an easy, light, surprisingly agreeable action.

In former years I had to select my pianos before every tour; I used to go repeatedly to 14th Street to try most carefully the instruments, and my choice invariably fell upon those two or three which were considered of the best ones by the makers themselves. This time it was quite different. Before beginning my tour I went only once to Steinway's warehouse; I tried an amazingly large quantity of instruments, dozens of concert grands, and I could not make a choice; I could not select the few best ones because all were best. Is there anything which could demonstrate more convincingly the wealth of resources of your firm, the astonishing vitality of your house? But there is in it something to rejoice the heart of everyone who is devoted to his profession. Young men inherit fame and fortune, general respect and universal recognition most legitimately acquired by the genius, industry and honest, persistent labor of their illustrious forefathers. Instead of simply enjoying life, instead of dwelling passively upon the golden ancestral laurels, they concentrate in noble, ambitious efforts all their energy and up they go to a higher plane and, indeed, they reach still higher regions.

Such a thing can only be accomplished by a sincere love of profession, and it is to this love of profession that I wish to pay my tribute of high esteem and admiration.

New York, May 4, 1914.

Most faithfully yours,

I. J. PADEREWSKI.

A highly artistic fac-simile of the above letter in Mr. Paderewski's own handwriting, with a most excellent portrait of the great artist, will be mailed upon request. Steinway & Sons, Steinway Hall, 107-109 East 14th Street, New York.

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