Although Chopin passes off lightly the grumbling and grimacing of the members of the orchestra respecting the bad writing of his music, they seem to have had more serious reasons for complaint than he alleges in the above quotation.  Indeed, he relates himself that after the occurrence his countryman Nidecki, who was very friendly to him and rejoiced at his success, looked over the orchestral parts of the Rondo and corrected them.  The correction of MSS. was at no time of his life a strong point of Chopin’s.  That the orchestra was not hostile to him appears from another allusion of his to this affair:—­

The orchestra cursed my badly-written music, and was not at all favourably inclined towards me until I began the improvisation; but then it joined in the applause of the public.  From this I saw that it had a good opinion of me.  Whether the other artists had so too I did not know as yet; but why should they be against me?  They must see that I do not play for the sake of material advantages.

After such a success nothing was more natural than that Chopin should allow himself to be easily persuaded to play again—­il n’y a que le premier pas qui coute—­but he said he would not play a third time.  Accordingly, on August 18, he appeared once more on the stage of the Karnthnerthor Theatre.  Also this time he received no payment, but played to oblige Count Gallenberg, who, indeed, was in anything but flourishing circumstances.  On this occasion Chopin succeeded in producing the Krakowiak, and repeated, by desire of the ladies, the Variations.  Two other items of the programme were Lindpaintner’s Overture to Der Bergkonig and a polonaise of Mayseder’s played by the violinist Joseph Khayl, a very young pupil of Jansa’s.

The rendering of the Rondo especially [Chopin writes] gave me pleasure, because Gyrowetz, Lachner, and other masters, nay, even the orchestra, were so charmed—­excuse the expression—­ that they called me back twice.

In another letter he is more loquacious on the subject:—­

If the public received me kindly on my first appearance, it was yesterday still more hearty.  When I appeared on the stage I was greeted with a twice-repeated, long-sustained “Bravo!” The public had gathered in greater numbers than at the first concert.  The financier of the theatre, Baron—­I do not remember his name—­thanked me for the recette and said that if the attendance was great, it was not on account of the ballet, which had already been often performed.  With my Rondo I have won the good opinion of all professional musicians—­ from Capellmeister Lachner to the pianoforte-tuner, all praise my composition.

The press showed itself not less favourable than the public.  The fullest account of our artist’s playing and compositions, and the impression they produced on this occasion, I found on looking over the pages of the Wiener Theaterzeitung.  Chopin