As you may suppose [says a writer of a notice in the “Gazette musicale”] M. Chopin was not a stranger to the composition of the programme of this soiree in behalf of his unhappy countrymen.  Accordingly the fete was brilliant.

In the same notice may also be read the following:—­

Chopin’s Concerto, so original, of so brilliant a style, so full of ingenious details, so fresh in its melodies, obtained a very great success.  It is very difficult not to be monotonous in a pianoforte concerto; and the amateurs could not but thank Chopin for the pleasure he had procured them, while the artists admired the talent which enabled him to do so [i.e., to avoid monotony], and at the same time to rejuvenate so antiquated a form.

The remark on the agedness of the concerto-form and the difficulty of not being monotonous is naive and amusing enough to be quoted for its own sake, but what concerns us here is the correctness of the report.  Although the expressions of praise contained in it are by no means enthusiastic, nay, are not even straightforward, they do not tally with what we learn from other accounts.  This discrepancy may be thus explained.  Maurice Schlesinger, the founder and publisher of the “Gazette musicale,” was on friendly terms with Chopin and had already published some of his compositions.  What more natural, therefore, than that, if the artist’s feelings were hurt, he should take care that they should not be further tortured by unpleasant remarks in his paper.  Indeed, in connection with all the Chopin notices and criticisms in the “Gazette musicale” we must keep in mind the relations between the publisher and composer, and the fact that several of the writers in the paper were Chopin’s intimate friends, and many of them were of the clique, or party, to which he also belonged.  Sowinski, a countryman and acquaintance of Chopin’s, says of this concert that the theatre was crowded and all went well, but that Chopin’s expectations were disappointed, the E minor Concerto not producing the desired effect.  The account in Larousse’s “Grand Dictionnaire” is so graphic that it makes one’s flesh creep.  After remarking that Chopin obtained only a demi-success, the writer of the article proceeds thus:  “The bravos of his friends and a few connoisseurs alone disturbed the cold and somewhat bewildered attitude of the majority of the audience.”  According to Sowinski and others Chopin’s repugnance to play in public dates from this concert; but this repugnance was not the outcome of one but of many experiences.  The concert at the Theatre-Italien may, however, have brought it to the culminating point.  Liszt told me that Chopin was most deeply hurt by the cold reception he got at a concert at the Conservatoire, where he played the Larghetto from the F minor Concerto.  This must have been at Berlioz’s concert, which I mentioned on one of the foregoing pages of this chapter.