June 15, 1848:—­

Monsieur Chopin will give a Matinee musicale, at No. 99, Eaton Place, on Friday, June 23, to commence at 3 o’clock.  A limited number of tickets, one guinea each, with full particulars, at Cramer, Beale & Co.’s, 201, Regent Street.

  July 3 and 4, 1848:—­

Monsieur Chopin begs to announce that his second Matinee musicale will take place on Friday next, July 7, at the residence of the Earl of Falmouth, No. 2, St. James’s Square.  To commence at half-past 3.  Tickets, limited in number, and full particulars at Cramer, Beale & Co.’s, 201, Regent Street.

  The Musical World (July 8, 1848) says about these
  performances:—­

M. Chopin has lately given two performances of his own pianoforte music at the residence of Mrs. Sartoris (late Miss Adelaide Kemble), which seem to have given much pleasure to his audiences, among whom Mdlle.  Lind, who was present at the first, seems to be the most enthusiastic.  We were not present at either, and, therefore, have nothing to say on the subject.

  [Footnote:  Of course, the above-quoted advertisements prove
  the reporter to be wrong in this particular; there was only
  one at the house of Mrs. Sartoris.]

From an account of the first matinee in the Athenaeum we learn that Chopin played nocturnes, etudes, mazurkas, two waltzes, and the Berceuse, but none of his more developed works, such as sonatas, concertos, scherzos, and ballades.  The critic tries to analyse the master’s style of execution—­a “mode” in which “delicacy, picturesqueness, elegance, and humour are blended so as to produce that rare thing, a new delight”—­pointing out his peculiar fingering, treatment of scale and shake, tempo rubato, &c.  But although the critic speaks no less appreciatively of the playing than of the compositions, the tenor of the notice of the second matinee (July 15, 1848) shows that the former left nevertheless something to be desired.  “Monsieur Chopin played better at his second than at his first matinee—­not with more delicacy (that could hardly be), but with more force and brio.”  Along with other compositions of his, Chopin played on this occasion his Scherzo in B flat and his Etude in C sharp minor.  Another attraction of the matinee was the singing of Madame Viardot-Garcia, “who, besides her inimitable airs with Mdlle. de Mendi, and her queerly-piquant Mazurkas, gave the Cenerentola rondo, graced with great brilliancy; and a song by Beethoven, ‘Ich denke dein.’”

[Footnote:  No doubt, those Mazurkas by Chopin which, adapting to them Spanish words, she had arranged for voice and piano.  Hiller wrote mostenthusiastically of these arrangements and her performance of them.]