Now [says Chopin, the cautious, to his friend] he [Blahetka] cannot say that I have not sufficiently informed him of the state of things here!  It is not unlikely that he will come.  I should be glad to see them, and would do what I could to procure a full house for his daughter.  I should most willingly play with her on two pianos, for you cannot imagine how kindly an interest this German [Mr. Blahetka] took in me at Vienna.

Among the artists who came to Warsaw were:  the youthful Worlitzer, who, although only sixteen years of age, was already pianist to the King of Prussia; the clever pianist Mdlle. de Belleville, who afterwards became Madame Oury; the great violinist Lipinski, the Polish Paganini; and the celebrated Henrietta Sontag, one of the brightest stars of the time.  Chopin’s intercourse with these artists and his remarks on them are worth noting:  they throw light on his character as a musician and man as well as on theirs.  He relates that Worlitzer, a youth of Jewish extraction, and consequently by nature very talented, had called on him and played to him several things famously, especially Moscheles’ “Marche d’Alexandre variée.”  Notwithstanding the admitted excellence of Worlitzer’s playing, Chopin adds—­not, however, without a “this remains between us two”—­that he as yet lacks much to deserve the title of Kammer-Virtuos.  Chopin thought more highly of Mdlle. de Belleville, who, he says, “plays the piano beautifully; very airily, very elegantly, and ten times better than Worlitzer.”  What, we may be sure, in no wise diminished his good opinion of the lady was that she had performed his Variations in Vienna, and could play one of them by heart.  To picture the object of Chopin’s artistic admiration a little more clearly, let me recall to the reader’s memory Schumann’s characterisation of Mdlle. de Belleville and Clara Wieck.

They should not be compared.  They are different mistresses of different schools.  The playing of the Belleville is technically the finer of the two; Clara’s is more impassioned.  The tone of the Belleville caresses, but does not penetrate beyond the ear; that of Clara reaches the heart.  The one is a poetess; the other is poetry itself.

Chopin’s warmest admiration and longest comments were, however, reserved for Mdlle.  Sontag.  Having a little more than a year before her visit to Warsaw secretly married Count Rossi, she made at the time we are speaking of her last artistic tour before retiring, at the zenith of her fame and power, into private life.  At least, she thought then it was her last tour; but pecuniary losses and tempting offers induced her in 1849 to reappear in public.  In Warsaw she gave a first series of five or six concerts in the course of a week, went then by invitation of the King of Prussia to Fischbach, and from there returned to Warsaw.  Her concerts were remarkable for their brevity.  She usually sang at them four times, and between her performances the orchestra played some pieces.  She dispensed altogether with the assistance of other virtuosos.  But Chopin remarks that so great was the impression she made as a vocalist and the interest she inspired as an artist that one required some rest after her singing.  Here is what the composer writes to his friend about her (June 5, 1830):—­