Frederick Chopin as a Man and Musician

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You see I have praised myself enough to you.

Now, if Grzymata will visit me (which is doubtful), send me
through him Weber for four hands. Also the last of my Ballade
in manuscript, as I wish to change something in it. I should
like very much to have your copy of the last mazurkas, if you
have such a thing, for I do not know if my gallantry went so
far as to give you a copy.

Pleyel wrote to me that you were very obliging, and have
corrected the Preludes. Do you know how much Wessel paid him
for them? It would be well to know this for the future.

My father has written to me that my old sonata has been
published by Haslinger, and that the Germans praise it.
[FOOTNOTE: There must have been some misunderstanding; the
Sonata, Op. 4, was not published till 1851.]

I have now, counting those you have, six manuscripts; the
devil take them if they get them for nothing. Pleyel did not
do me any service with his offers, for he thereby made
Schlesinger indifferent about me. But I hope this will be set
right, f wrote to ask him to let me know if he had been paid
for the piano sent to Palma, and I did so because the French
consul in Majorca, whom I know very well, was to be changed,
and had he not been paid, it would have been very difficult
for me to settle this affair at such a distance. Fortunately,
he is paid, and very liberally, as he wrote to me only last
week.

Write to me what sort of lodgings you have. Do you board at
the club?

Woyciechowski wrote to me to compose an oratorio. I answered
him in the letter to my parents. Why does he build a sugar-
refinery and not a monastery of Camaldolites or a nunnery of
Dominican sisters!

[2.]

I give you my most hearty thanks for your upright, friendly,
not English but Polish soul.

Select paper (wall-paper) such as I had formerly, tourterelle
(dove colour), only bright and glossy, for the two rooms, also
dark green with not too broad stripes. For the anteroom
something else, but still respectable. Nevertheless, if there
are any nicer and more fashionable papers that are to your
liking, and you think that I also will like them, then take
them. I prefer the plain, unpretending, and neat ones to the
common shopkeeper's staring colours. Therefore, pearl colour
pleases me, for it is neither loud nor does it look vulgar. I
thank you for the servant's room, for it is much needed.

Now, as to the furniture: you will make the best of it if you
look to it yourself. I did not dare to trouble you with it,
but if you will be so kind, take it and arrange it as it ought
to be. I shall ask Grzymala to give money for the removal. I
shall write to him about it at once. As to the bed and writing-
desk, it may be necessary to give them to the cabinet-maker to
be renewed. In this case you will take the papers out of the
writing-desk, and lock them up somewhere else. I need not tell
you what you ought to do. Act as you like and judge what is
necessary. Whatever you may do will be well done. You have my
full confidence: this is one thing.

Now the second.

You must write to Wessel--doubtless you have already written
about the Preludes. Let him know that I have six new
manuscripts, for which I want 300 francs each (how many pounds
is that?). If you think he would not give so much, let me know
first. Inform me also if Probst is in Paris. Further look out
for a servant. I should prefer a respectable honest Pole. Tell
also Grzymala of it. Stipulate that he is to board himself; no
more than 80 francs. I shall not be in Paris before the end of
October--keep this, however, to yourself.

My dear friend, the state of Johnnie's health weighs sometimes
strangely on my heart. May God give him what he stands in need
of, but he should not allow himself to be cheated...However,
this is neither here nor there. The greatest truth in the
world is that I shall always love you as a most honest and
kind man and Johnnie as another.

I embrace you both, write each of you and soon, were it of
nothing more than the weather.--Your old more than ever long-
nosed

FREDERICK.

[3.]

According to your description and that of Grzymala you have
found such capital rooms that we are now thinking you have a
lucky hand, and for this reason a man--and he is a great man,
being the portier of George's house--who will run about to
find a house for her, is ordered to apply to you when he has
found a few; and you with your elegant tact (you see how I
flatter you) will also examine what he has found, and give
your opinion thereon. The main point is that it should be
detached, if possible; for instance, a little hotel. Or
something in a courtyard, with a view into a garden, or, if
there be no garden, into a large court-yard; nota bene, very
few lodgers--elegant--not higher than the second story.
Perhaps some corps de logis, but small, or something like
Perthuis's house, or even smaller. Lastly, should it be in
front, the street must not be noisy. In one word, something
you judge would be good for her. If it could be near me, so
much the better; but if it cannot be, this consideration need
not prevent you.

It seems to me that a little hotel in the new streets--such as
Clichy, Blanche, or Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, as far as Rue des
Martyrs--would be most suitable. Moreover, I send you a list
of the streets where Mr. Mardelle--the portier of the Hotel
Narbonne, Rue de la Harpe, No. 89, which belongs to George--
will look for a house. If in your leisure time you also looked
out for something in our part of the town, it would be very
nice. Fancy, I don't know why, but we think that you will find
something wonderfully good, although it is already late.

The price she wishes to pay is from 2,000 to 2,500 francs, you
might also give a couple of hundred francs more if anything
extra fine should turn up. Grzymala and Arago promised to look
out for something, but in spite of Grzymala's efforts nothing
acceptable has thus far been found. I have written to him that
he should employ you also in this business of mine (I say of
MINE, for it is just the same as if it were mine). I shall
write to him again to-day and tell him that I have asked you
to give your help and use all your talents. It is necessary
that there should be three bedrooms, two of which must be
beside each other and one separated, for instance, by the
drawing-room. Adjoining the third there will be required a
well-lighted cabinet for her study. The other two may be
small, this one, the third, also not very large. Besides this
a drawing-room and dining-room in proportion. A pretty large
kitchen. Two rooms for the servants, and a coal-cellar. The
rooms must of course have inlaid floors, be newly laid, if
possible, and require no repairs. But a little hotel or a
separate part of a house in a court-yard looking into a garden
would be most desirable. There must be tranquillity,
quietness, no blacksmith in the neighbourhood. Respectable
stairs. The windows exposed to the sun, absolutely to the
south. Further, there must be no smoke, no bad odour, but a
fine view, a garden, or at least a large court. A garden would
be best. In the Faubourg St. Germain are many gardens, also in
the Faubourg St. Honore. Find something quickly, something
splendid, and near me. As soon as you have any chance, write
immediately, don't be lazy; or get hold of Grzymala, go and
see, both of you, take et que cela finisse. I send you a plan
of the arrangement of the apartments. If you find something
like this, draw the plan, or take it at once, which will be
better than letting it slip out of your hands.

Mr. Mardelle is a decent man, and no fool, he was not always a
portier. He is ordered to go and see you whenever he finds
anything. You must also on your part be on the look-out, but
let us keep that between us. I embrace you and Johnnie also.
You will have our true gratitude when you find a house.

[a diagram of the apartments is inserted here in the letter.]

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| | | | | |
| Study | Bedroom. | Drawing room. | Bedroom. | Servants’ room. |
| | | | | |
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| | Dining room | |
| | | |
|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| | Lobby | |
| | | |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Pas de voisinage, surtout blacksmith, nor anything that
belongs to him. For God's sake I beg of you take an active
interest in the matter, my dear friend!

[4.]

I thank you for all your kind actions.

In the anteroom you will direct the grey curtains to be hung
which were in my cabinet with the piano, and in the bedroom
the same that were in the bedroom, only under them the white
muslin ones which were under the grey ones.

I should like to have a little press in my bedroom, unless
there be not room enough, or the drawing-room be too bare
between the windows.

If the little sofa, the same which stood in the dining-room,
could be covered with red, with the same stuff with which the
chairs are covered, it might be placed in the drawing-room;
but as it would be necessary to call in the upholsterer for
that, it may be difficult.

It is a good thing that Domaradzki is going to be married, for
surely he will give me back the 80 francs after the wedding. I
should like also to see Podczaski married, and Nakw.
(Nakwaska), and Anthony also. Let this remain between this
paper, myself, and you.

Find me a valet. Kiss Madame Leo (surely the first commission
will be the more pleasant to you, wherefore I relieve you of
the second if you will do the first).

Let me know about Probst, whether he is in Paris or not. Do
not forget Wessel. Tell Gutmann that I was much pleased that
he asked for me at least once. To Moscheles, should he be in
Paris, order to be given an injection of Neukomm's oratorios,
prepared with Berlioz's "Cellini" and Doehler's Concerto. Give
Johnnie from me for his breakfast moustaches of sphinxes and
kidneys of parrots, with tomato sauce powdered with little
eggs of the microscopic world. You yourself take a bath in
whale's infusion as a rest from all the commissions I give
you, for I know that you will do willingly as much as time
will permit, and I shall do the same for you when you are
married--of which Johnnie will very likely inform me soon.
Only not to Ox, for that is my party.

[5.]

My dear friend,--In five, six, or seven days I shall be in
Paris. Get things prepared as quickly as possible; if not all,
let me find at least the rooms papered and the bed ready.

I am hastening my arrival as the presence of George Sand is
necessary on account of a piece to be played. [FOOTNOTE:
"Cosima." The first representation, at the Comedie Francaise,
did not take place until April, 1840.] But this remains
between us. We have fixed our departure for the day after to-
morrow; thus, counting a few days for delay, we shall see each
other on Wednesday or Thursday.

Besides the different commissions I gave you, especially that
in the last letter about her house, which after our arrival
will be off your shoulders--but till then, for God's sake, be
obliging--besides all this, I say, I forgot to ask you to
order for me a hat from my Duport in your street, Chaussee
d'Antin. He has my measure, and knows how light I want it and
of what kind. Let him give the hat of this year's shape, not
too much exaggerated, for I do not know how you are dressing
yourself just now. Again, besides this, call in passing at
Dautremont's, my tailor's, on the Boulevards, and order him to
make me at once a pair of grey trousers. You will yourself
select a dark-grey colour for winter trousers; something
respectable, not striped, but plain and elastic. You are an
Englishman, so you know what I require. Dautremont will be
glad to hear that I am coming. Also a quiet black velvet
waistcoat, but with very little and no loud pattern, something
very quiet but very elegant. Should he not have the best
velvet of this kind, let him make a quiet, fine silk
waistcoat, but not too much open. If the servant could be got
for less than 80 francs, I should prefer it; but as you have
already found one, let the matter rest.

My very dear friend, pardon me once more for troubling you,
but I must. In a few days we shall see each other, and embrace
for all this.

I beg of you, for God's sake, do not say to any Poles that I
am coming so soon, nor to any Jewess either, as I should like
to reserve myself during the first few days only for you,
Grzymala, and Johnnie. Give them my love; to the latter I
shall write once more.

I expect that the rooms will be ready. Write constantly to me,
three times a day if you like, whether you have anything to
say or not. Before leaving here I shall once more write to
you.

Monday.

You are inappreciable! Take Rue Pigal [Pigalle], both houses,
without asking anybody. Make haste. If by taking both houses
you can diminish a little the price, well; if not, take them
for 2,500 francs. Do not let them slip out of your hands, for
we think them the best and most excellent. SHE regards you as
my most logical and best--and I would add: the most splenetic,
Anglo-Polish, from my soul beloved--friend.

[6.]

The day after to-morrow, Thursday, at five o'clock in the
morning, we start, and on Friday at three, four, certainly at
five o'clock, I shall be in Rue Tronchet, No. 5. I beg of you
to inform the people there of this, I wrote to Johnnie to-day
to retain for me that valet, and order him to wait for me at
Rue Tronchet on Friday from noon. Should you have time to call
upon me at that time, we would most heartily embrace each
other. Once more my and my companion's most sincere thanks for
Rue Pigalle.

Now, keep a sharp look-out on the tailor, he must have the
clothes ready by Friday morning, so that I can change my
clothes as soon as I come. Order him to take them to Rue
Tronchet, and deliver them there to the valet Tineau--if I
mistake not, that is his name. Likewise the hat from Dupont,
[FOOTNOTE: In the preceding letter it was Duport] and for that
I shall alter for you the second part of the Polonaise till
the last moment of my life. Yesterday's version also may not
please you, although I racked my brains with it for at least
eighty seconds.

I have written out my manuscripts in good order. There are six
with your Polonaises, not counting the seventh, an impromptu,
which may perhaps be worthless--I do not know myself, it is
too new. But it would be well if it be not too much in the
style of Orlowski, Zimmermann, or Karsko-Konski, [FOOTNOTE:
Chopin's countryman, the pianist and composer Antoine Kontski]
or Sowinski, or other similar animals. For, according to my
reckoning, it might fetch me about 800 francs. That will be
seen afterwards.

As you are such a clever man, you might also arrange that no
black thoughts and suffocating coughs shall annoy me in the
new rooms. Try to make me good. Change, if you can, many
episodes of my past. It would also not be a bad thing if I
should find a few years of great work accomplished. By this
you will greatly oblige me, also if you would make yourself
younger or bring about that we had never been born.--Your old

FREDERICK.

CHAPTER XXIV.

1839-1842.

RETURN OF GEORGE SAND AND CHOPIN TO PARIS.--GEORGE SAND IN THE
RUE PIGALLE.--CHOPIN IN THE RUE TRONCHET: REMINISCENCES OF
BRINLEY RICHARDS AND MOSCHELES.--SOIREES AT LEO'S AND ST. CLOUD.-
-CHOPIN JOINS MADAME SAND IN THE RUE PIGALLE.--EXTRACTS FROM
GEORGE SAND'S CORRESPONDANCE; A LETTER OF MADAME SAND'S TO
CHOPIN; BALZAC ANECDOTES.--MADAME SAND AND CHOPIN DO NOT GO TO
NOHANT IN 1840.--COMPOSITIONS OF THIS PERIOD.--ABOUT CHOPIN AS A
PIANIST.--LETTERS WRITTEN TO FONTANA IN THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF
1841.

Although Chopin and George Sand came to Paris towards the end of
October, 1839, months passed before the latter got into the house
which Fontana had taken for her. This we learn from a letter
written by her to her friend Gustave Papet, and dated Paris,
January, 1840, wherein we read:--

At last I am installed in the Rue Pigalle, 16, only since the
last two days, after having fumed, raged, stormed, and sworn
at the upholsterers, locksmith, &c., &c. What a long,
horrible, unbearable business it is to lodge one's self here!

[FOOTNOTE: In the letter, dated Paris, October, 1839,
preceding, in the George Sand "Correspondance," the one from
which the above passage is extracted, occur the following
words: "Je suis enfin installee chez moi a Paris." Where this
chez moi was, I do not know.]

How greatly the interiors of George Sand's pavilions in the Rue
Pigalle differed from those of Senor Gomez's villa and the cells
in the monastery of Valdemosa, may be gathered from Gutmann's
description of two of the apartments.

[FOOTNOTE: I do not guarantee the correctness of all the
following details, although I found them in a sketch of Gutmann's
life inspired by himself ("Der Lieblings-schuler Chopin's", No. 3
of "Schone Geister," by Bernhard Stavenow, Bremen, 1879), and
which he assured me was trustworthy. The reasons of my scepticism
are--1, Gutmann's imaginative memory and tendency to show himself
off to advantage; 2, Stavenow's love of fine writing and a good
story; 3, innumerable misstatements that can be indisputably
proved by documents.]

Regarding the small salon, he gives only the general information
that it was quaintly fitted up with antique furniture. But of
George Sand's own room, which made a deeper impression upon him,
he mentions so many particulars--the brown carpet covering the
whole floor, the walls hung with a dark-brown ribbed cloth
(Ripsstoff), the fine paintings, the carved furniture of dark
oak, the brown velvet seats of the chairs, the large square bed,
rising but little above the floor, and covered with a Persian rug
(Teppich)--that it is easy to picture to ourselves the tout-
ensemble of its appearance. Gutmann tells us that he had an early
opportunity of making these observations, for Chopin visited his
pupil the very day after his arrival (?), and invited him at once
to call on George Sand in order to be introduced to her. When
Gutmann presented himself in the small salon above alluded to, he
found George Sand seated on an ottoman smoking a cigarette. She
received the young man with great cordiality, telling him that
his master had often spoken to her of him most lovingly. Chopin
entered soon after from an adjoining apartment, and then they all
went into the dining-room to have dinner. When they were seated
again in the cosy salon, and George Sand had lit another
cigarette, the conversation, which had touched on a variety of
topics, among the rest on Majorca, turned on art. It was then
that the authoress said to her friend: "Chop, Chop, show Gutmann
my room that he may see the pictures which Eugene Delacroix
painted for me."

Chopin on arriving in Paris had taken up his lodgings in the Rue
Tronchet, No. 5, and resumed teaching. One of his pupils there
was Brinley Richards, who practised under him one of the books of
studies. Chopin also assisted the British musician in the
publication, by Troupenas, of his first composition, having
previously looked over and corrected it. Brinley Richards
informed me that Chopin, who played rarely in these lessons,
making his corrections and suggestions rather by word of mouth
than by example, was very languid, indeed so much so that he
looked as if he felt inclined to lie down, and seemed to say: "I
wish you would come another time."

About this time, that is in the autumn or early in the winter of
1839, Moscheles came to Paris. We learn from his diary that at
Leo's, where he liked best to play, he met for the first time
Chopin, who had just returned from the country, and whose
acquaintance he was impatient to make. I have already quoted what
Moscheles said of Chopin's appearance--namely, that it was
exactly like [identificirt mit] his music, both being delicate
and dreamy [schwarmerisch]. His remarks on his great
contemporary's musical performances are, of course, still more
interesting to us.

He played to me at my request, and now for the first time I
understand his music, and can also explain to myself the
enthusiasm of the ladies. His ad libitum playing, which with
the interpreters of his music degenerates into disregard of
time, is with him only the most charming originality of
execution; the dilettantish harsh modulations which strike me
disagreeably when I am playing his compositions no longer
shock me, because he glides lightly over them in a fairy-like
way with his delicate fingers; his piano is so softly breathed
forth that he does not need any strong forte in order to
produce the wished-for contrasts; it is for this reason that
one does not miss the orchestral-like effects which the German
school demands from a pianoforte-player, but allows one's self
to be carried away, as by a singer who, little concerned about
the accompaniment, entirely follows his feeling. In short, he
is an unicum in the world of pianists. He declares that he
loves my music very much, and at all events he knows it very
well. He played me some studies and his latest work, the
"Preludes," and I played him many of my compositions.

In addition to this characterisation of the artist Chopin,
Moscheles' notes afford us also some glimpses of the man. "Chopin
was lively, merry, nay, exceedingly comical in his imitations of
Pixis, Liszt, and a hunchbacked pianoforte-player." Some days
afterwards, when Moscheles saw him at his own house, he found him
an altogether different Chopin:--

I called on him according to agreement with Ch. and E., who
are also quite enthusiastic about him, and who were
particularly struck with the "Prelude" in A flat major in 6/8
time with the ever-recurring pedal A flat. Only the Countess
O. [Obreskoff] from St. Petersburg, who adores us artists en
bloc, was there, and some gentlemen. Chopin's excellent pupil
Gutmann played his master's manuscript Scherzo in C sharp
minor. Chopin himself played his manuscript Sonata in B flat
minor with the Funeral March.

Gutmann relates that Chopin sent for him early in the morning of
the day following that on which he paid the above-mentioned visit
to George Sand, and said to him:--

Pardon me for disturbing you so early in the morning, but I
have just received a note from Moscheles, wherein he expresses
his joy at my return to Paris, and announces that he will
visit me at five in the afternoon to hear my new compositions.
Now I am unfortunately too weak to play my things to him; so
you must play. I am chiefly concerned about this Scherzo.

Gutmann, who did not yet know the work (Op. 39), thereupon sat
down at Chopin's piano, and by dint of hard practising managed to
play it at the appointed hour from memory, and to the
satisfaction of the composer. Gutmann's account does not tally in
several of its details with Moscheles'. As, however, Moscheles
does not give us reminiscences, but sober, business-like notes
taken down at the time they refer to, and without any attempt at
making a nice story, he is the safer authority. Still, thus much
at least we may assume to be certain:--Gutmann played the
Scherzo, Op. 39, on this occasion, and his rendering of it was
such as to induce his master to dedicate it to him.

Comte de Perthuis, the adjutant of King Louis Philippe, who had
heard Chopin and Moscheles repeatedly play the latter's Sonata in
E flat major for four hands, spoke so much and so
enthusiastically about it at Court that the royal family, wishing
"to have also the great treat," invited the two artists to come
to St. Cloud. The day after this soiree Moscheles wrote in his
diary:--

Yesterday was a memorable day...at nine o'clock Chopin and I,
with Perthuis and his amiable wife, who had called for us,
drove out to St. Cloud in the heaviest showers of rain, and
felt so much the more comfortable when we entered the
brilliant, well-lighted palace. We passed through many state-
rooms into a salon carre, where the royal family was assembled
en petit comite. At a round table sat the queen with an
elegant work-basket before her (perhaps to embroider a purse
for me?); near her were Madame Adelaide, the Duchess of
Orleans, and ladies-in-waiting. The noble ladies were as
affable as if we had been old acquaintances...Chopin played
first a number of nocturnes and studies, and was admired and
petted like a favourite. After I also had played some old and
new studies, and been honoured with the same applause, we
seated ourselves together at the instrument--he again playing
the bass, which he always insists on doing. The close
attention of the little circle during my E flat major Sonata
was interrupted only by the exclamations "divine!"
"delicious!" After the Andante the queen whispered to a lady-
in-waiting: "Would it not be indiscreet to ask them to play it
again?" which naturally was equivalent to a command to repeat
it, and so we played it again with increased abandon. In the
Finale we gave ourselves up to a musical delirium. Chopin's
enthusiasm throughout the whole piece must, I believe, have
infected the auditors, who now burst forth into eulogies of
us. Chopin played again alone with the same charm, and called
forth the same sympathy as before; then I improvised...