free to enjoy the pleasure of listening without having his attention diverted by fatiguing gymnastics.  Kalkbrenner’s manner of phrasing was somewhat lacking in expression and communicative warmth, but the style was always noble, true, and of the grand school.

We now know what Chopin meant when he described Kalkbrenner as “perfect and possessed of something that raised him above all other virtuosos”; we now know also that Chopin’s admiration was characteristic and not misplaced.  Nevertheless, nobody will think for a moment of disagreeing with those who advised Chopin not to become a pupil of this master, who always exacted absolute submission to his precepts; for it was to be feared that he would pay too dear for the gain of inferior accomplishments with the loss of his invaluable originality.  But, as we have seen, the affair came to nothing, Chopin ceasing to attend the classes after a few visits.  What no doubt influenced his final decision more than the advice of his friends was the success which his playing and compositions met with at the concert of which I have now to tell the history.  Chopin’s desertion as a pupil did not terminate the friendly relation that existed between the two artists.  When Chopin published his E minor Concerto he dedicated it to Kalkbrenner, and the latter soon after composed “Variations brillantes (Op. 120) pour le piano sur une Mazourka de Chopin,” and often improvised on his young brother-artist’s mazurkas.  Chopin’s friendship with Camille Pleyel helped no doubt to keep up his intercourse with Kalkbrenner, who was a partner of the firm of Pleyel & Co.

The arrangements for his concert gave Chopin much trouble, and had they not been taken in hand by Paer, Kalkbrenner, and especially Norblin, he would not have been able to do anything in Paris, where one required at least two months to get up a concert.  This is what Chopin tells Elsner in the letter dated December 14, 1831.  Notwithstanding such powerful assistance he did not succeed in giving his concert on the 25th of December, as he at first intended.  The difficulty was to find a lady vocalist.  Rossini, the director of the Italian Opera, was willing to help him, but Robert, the second director, refused to give permission to any of the singers in his company to perform at the concert, fearing that, if he did so once, there would be no end of applications.  As Veron, the director of the Academie Royale likewise refused Chopin’s request, the concert had to be put off till the 15th of January, 1832, when, however, on account of Kalkbrenner’s illness or for some other reason, it had again to be postponed.  At last it came off on February 26, 1832.  Chopin writes on December 16, 1831, about the arrangements for the concert:—­