CHAPTER XI.

Chopin is joined at kalisz by Titus Woyciechowski.—­Four days at
Breslau:  His visits to the theatre; Capellmeister Schnabel; plays
at A concert; Adolf Hesse.—­Second visit to Dresden:  Music at
theatre and church; German and polish society; Morlacchi, Signora
Palazzesi, Rastrelli, Rolla, Dotzauer, Kummer, Klengel, and other
musicians; A concert talked about but not given; sight-seeing.—­
After A week, by Prague to Vienna.—­Arrives at Vienna towards the
end of November, 1830.

Thanks to Chopin’s extant letters to his family and friends it is not difficult to give, with the help of some knowledge of the contemporary artists and of the state of music in the towns he visited, a pretty clear account of his experiences and mode of life during the nine or ten months which intervene between his departure from Warsaw and his arrival in Paris.  Without the letters this would have been impossible, and for two reasons:  one of them is that, although already a notable man, Chopin was not yet a noted man; and the other, that those with whom he then associated have, like himself, passed away from among us.

Chopin, who, as the reader will remember, left Warsaw on November 1, 1830, was joined at Kalisz by Titus Woyciechowski.  Thence the two friends travelled together to Vienna.  They made their first halt at Breslau, which they reached on November 6.  No sooner had Chopin put up at the hotel Zur goldenen Gans, changed his dress, and taken some refreshments, than he rushed off to the theatre.  During his stay in Breslau he was present at three performances—­ at Raimund’s fantastical comedy “Der Alpenkonig und der Menschenfeind”, Auber’s “Maurer und Schlosser (Le Macon),” and Winter’s “Das unterbrochene Opferfest”, a now superannuated but then still popular opera.  The players succeeded better than the singers in gaining the approval of their fastidious auditor, which indeed might have been expected.  As both Chopin and Woyciechowski were provided with letters of introduction, and the gentlemen to whom they were addressed did all in their power to make their visitors’ sojourn as pleasant as possible, the friends spent in Breslau four happy days.  It is characteristic of the German musical life in those days that in the Ressource, a society of that town, they had three weekly concerts at which the greater number of the performers were amateurs.  Capellmeister Schnabel, an old acquaintance of Chopin’s, had invited the latter to come to a morning rehearsal.