Baillot, the rival of Paganini, and Brod, the celebrated oboe- player, will assist me with their talent.  I intend to play my F minor Concerto and the Variations in B flat...I shall play not only the concerto and the variations, but also with Kalkbrenner his duet “Marche suivie d’une Polonaise” for two pianos, with the accompaniment of four others.  Is this not an altogether mad idea?  One of the grand pianos is very large, and is for Kalkbrenner; the other is small (a so-called mono- chord), and is for me.  On the other large ones, which are as loud as an orchestra, Hiller, Osborne, Stamati, and Sowinski are to play.  Besides these performers, Norblin, Vidal, and the celebrated viola-player Urban will take part in the concert.

The singers of the evening were Mdlles.  Isambert and Tomeoni, and M. Boulanger.  I have not been able to discover the programme of the concert.  Hiller says that Chopin played his E minor Concerto and some of his mazurkas and nocturnes.  Fetis, in the Revue musicale (March 3, 1832), mentions only in a general way that there were performed a concerto by Chopin, a composition for six pianos by Kalkbrenner, some vocal pieces, an oboe solo, and “a quintet for violin [sic], executed with that energy of feeling and that variety of inspiration which distinguish the talent of M. Baillot.”  The concert, which took place in Pleyel’s rooms, was financially a failure; the receipts did not cover the expenses.  The audience consisted chiefly of Poles, and most of the French present had free tickets.  Hiller says that all the musical celebrities of Paris were there, and that Chopin’s performances took everybody by storm.  “After this,” he adds, “nothing more was heard of want of technique, and Mendelssohn applauded triumphantly.”  Fetis describes this soiree musicale as one of the most pleasant that had been given that year.  His criticism contains such interesting and, on the whole, such excellent remarks that I cannot resist the temptation to quote the more remarkable passages:—­

Here is a young man who, abandoning himself to his natural impressions and without taking a model, has found, if not a complete renewal of pianoforte music, at least a part of what has been sought in vain for a long time—­namely, an abundance of original ideas of which the type is to be found nowhere.  We do not mean by this that M. Chopin is endowed with a powerful organisation like that of Beethoven, nor that there are in his music such powerful conceptions as one remarks in that of this great man.  Beethoven has composed pianoforte music, but I speak here of pianists’ music, and it is by comparison with the latter that I find in M. Chopin’s inspirations the indication of a renewal of forms which may exercise in time much influence over this department of the art.

Of Chopin’s concerto Fetis remarks that it:—­