A much more congenial and intimate connection existed between Chopin, Slavik, and Merk. [Footnote:  Thus the name is spelt in Mendel’s Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon and by E. A. Melis, the Bohemian writer on music.  Chopin spells it Slawik.  The more usual spelling, however, is Slawjk; and in C.F.  Whistling’s Handbuch der musikalischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1828) it is Slavjk.] Joseph Slavik had come to Vienna in 1825 and had at once excited a great sensation.  He was then a young man of nineteen, but technically already superior to all the violinists that had been heard in the Austrian capital.  The celebrated Mayseder called him a second Lipinski.  Pixis, his master at the Conservatorium in Prague, on seeing some of this extraordinary pupil’s compositions—­a concerto, variations, &c.—­had wondered how anyone could write down such mad, unplayable stuff.  But Slavik before leaving Prague proved at a farewell concert that there was at least one who could play the mad stuff.  All this, however, was merely the prelude to what was yet to come.  The appearance of Paganini in 1828 revealed to him the, till then, dimly-perceived ideal of his dreams, and the great Italian violinist, who took an interest in this ardent admirer and gave him some hints, became henceforth his model.  Having saved a little money, he went for his further improvement to Paris, studying especially under Baillot, but soon returned to accept an engagement in the Imperial Band.  When after two years of hard practising he reappeared before the public of Vienna, his style was altogether changed; he mastered the same difficulties as Paganini, or even greater ones, not, however, with the same unfailing certainty, nor with an always irreproachable intonation.  Still, there can be no doubt that had not a premature death (in 1833, at the age of twenty-seven) cut short his career, he would have spread his fame all over the world.  Chopin, who met him first at Wurfel’s, at once felt a liking for him, and when on the following day he heard him play after dinner at Beyer’s, he was more pleased with his performance than with that of any other violinist except Paganini.  As Chopin’s playing was equally sympathetic to Slavik, they formed the project of writing a duet for violin and piano.  In a letter to his friend Matuszynski (December 25, 1830) Chopin writes:—­

I have just come from the excellent violinist Slavik.  With the exception of Paganini, I never heard a violin-player like him.  Ninety-six staccato notes in one bow!  It is almost incredible!  When I heard him I felt inclined to return to my lodgings and sketch variations on an Adagio [which they had previously agreed to take for their theme] of Beethoven’s.

The sight of the post-office and a letter from his Polish friends put the variations out of his mind, and they seem never to have been written, at least nothing has been heard of them.  Some remarks on Slavik in a letter addressed to his parents (May 28, 1831) show Chopin’s admiration of and affection for his friend still more distinctly:—­