Louisa [his sister] informs
me that Mr. Elsner was very much
pleased with the criticism; I wonder
what he will say of the
others, he who was my teacher of
composition?
Kandler, the Vienna correspondent of the “Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung,” after discussing in that paper (September 21, 1831) the performances of several artists, among others that of the clever Polish violin-virtuoso Serwaczynski, turns to “Chopin, also from the Sarmatian capital, who already during his visit last year proved himself a pianist of the first rank,” and remarks:—
The execution of his newest
Concerto in E minor, a serious
composition, gave no cause to revoke
our former judgment. One
who is so upright in his dealings
with genuine art is
deserving our genuine esteem.
All things considered, I do not hesitate to accept Liszt’s statement that the young artist did not produce such a sensation as he had a right to expect. In fact, notwithstanding the many pleasant social connections he had, Chopin must have afterwards looked back with regret, probably with bitterness, on his eight months’ sojourn in Vienna. Not only did he add nothing to his fame as a pianist and composer by successful concerts and new publications, but he seems even to have been sluggish in his studies and in the production of new works. How he leisurely whiled away the mornings at his lodgings, and passed the rest of the day abroad and in society, he himself has explicitly described. That this was his usual mode of life at Vienna, receives further support from the self-satisfaction with which he on one occasion mentions that he had practised from early morning till two o’clock in the afternoon. In his letters we read only twice of his having finished some new compositions. On December 21, 1830, he writes:—