One cannot help wondering at the absence from Chopin’s Berlin letters of the name of Ludwig Berger, who, no doubt, like Bernhard Klein, Rungenhagen, the brothers Ganz, and many another composer and virtuoso in Berlin, was included in the collective expression “distinguished musicians.”  But one would have thought that the personality of the pupil of Clementi, the companion of A. Klengel, the friend of Steibelt, Field, and Crotch, and the teacher of Mendelssohn and Taubert, would have particularly interested a young pianist.  Berger’s compositions cannot have been unknown to Chopin, who, moreover, must have heard of him from his Warsaw acquaintance Ernemann.  However, be this as it may, our friend was more fortunate as regards hearing good music, which certainly was a more important business than interviewing celebrities, often, alas, so refrigerating in its effect on enthusiastic natures.  Before his departure from Warsaw Chopin wrote:—­“It is much to hear a really good opera, were it only once; it enables one to form an idea of what a perfect performance is like.”  Although the most famous singers were on leave of absence, he greatly enjoyed the performances of Spontini’s “Ferdinand Cortez”, Cimarosa’s “Die heimliche Eke” ("Il Matrimonio segreto"), Onslow’s “Der Hausirer” ("Le colporteur"), and Winter’s “Das unterbrochene Opferfest.”  Still, they gave rise to some “buts,” which he thought would be wholly silenced only in Paris; nay, one of the two singers he liked best, Fraulein von Schatzel (Signora Tibaldi was the other), reminded him by her omissions of chromatic scales even of Warsaw.  What, however, affected him more than anything else was Handel’s “Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day,” which he heard at the Singakademie; it came nearest, he said, to the ideal of sublime music which he harboured in his soul.  A propos of another musical event he writes:—­

To-morrow the “Freischutz” will be performed; this is the fulfilment of my most ardent wish.  When I hear it I shall be able to make a comparison between the singers here and our own.

The “Freischutz” made its first appearance on the Warsaw stage in 1826, and therefore was known to Chopin; whereas the other operas were either unknown to him or were not considered decisive tests.

Music and things connected with music, such as music-shops and pianoforte-manufactories, took up Chopin’s attention almost exclusively.  He declines with thanks the offer of a ticket for the meetings of the congress:—­

I should gain little or nothing for my mind from these discussions, because I am too little of a savant; and, moreover, the professional gentlemen might perhaps look at me, the layman, and think:  “How comes Saul among the prophets?”

Of the Royal Library, to which he went with Professor Jarocki, he has no more to say than that “it is very large, but contains few musical works”; and when he visits the Zoological Museum, he thinks all the time what a bore it is, and how he would rather be at Schlesinger’s, the best music-shop in the town, and an enterprising publishing house.  That he neglects many things which educated men generally prize, he feels himself, and expresses the fear that his father will reproach him with one-sidedness.  In his excuse he says:—­