The Academist Chopin performed the first Allegro of Moscheles’ Pianoforte Concerto in F [G ?] minor, and an improvisation on the aeolopantaleon.  This instrument, invented by the cabinet-maker Dlugosz, of this town, combines the aeolomelodicon [footnote:  An instrument of the organ species, invented by Professor Hoffmann, and constructed by the mechanician Brunner, of Warsaw.] with the piano- forte....Young Chopin distinguished himself in his improvisation by wealth of musical ideas, and under his hands this instrument, of which he is a thorough master, made a great impression.

Unfortunately we learn nothing of Chopin’s rendering of the movement from Moscheles’ Concerto.  Still, this meagre notice, written by a contemporary—­an ear-witness, who wrote down his impressions soon after the performance—­is very precious, indeed more precious than the most complete and elaborate criticism written fifty years after the occurrence would be.  I cannot help thinking that Karasowski somewhat exaggerates when he says that Chopin’s pianoforte playing transported the audience into a state of enthusiasm, and that no concert had a brilliant success unless he took part in it.  The biographer seems either to trust too much to the fancy-coloured recollections of his informants, or to allow himself to be carried away by his zeal for the exaltation of his hero.  At any rate, the tenor of the above-quoted notice, laudatory as it is, and the absence of Chopin’s name from other Warsaw letters, do not remove the doubts which such eulogistic superlatives raise in the mind of an unbiassed inquirer.  But that Chopin, as a pianist and as a musician generally, had attained a proficiency far beyond his years becomes evident if we examine his compositions of that time, to which I shall presently advert.  And that he had risen into notoriety and saw his talents appreciated cannot be doubted for a moment after what has been said.  Were further proof needed, we should find it in the fact that he was selected to display the excellences of the aeolomelodicon when the Emperor Alexander I, during his sojourn in Warsaw in 1825, [footnote:  The Emperor Alexander opened the Diet at Warsaw on May 13, 1825, and closed it on June 13.] expressed the wish to hear this instrument.  Chopin’s performance is said to have pleased the august auditor, who, at all events, rewarded the young musician with a diamond ring.

A greater event than either the concert or the performance before the Emperor, in fact, the event of the year 1825, was the publication of Chopin’s Opus 1.  Only he who has experienced the delicious sensation of seeing himself for the first time in print can realise what our young author felt on this occasion.  Before we examine this work, we will give a passing glance at some less important early compositions of the maestro which were published posthumously.