nd obscurity was precisely what
assured to him a fame above the caprices of fashion, and kept him
from rivalries, jealousies, and injustice. Chopin, who has taken
no part in the extreme movement which for several years has
thrust one on another and one against another the executive
artists from all quarters of the world, has been constantly
surrounded by faithful adepts, enthusiastic pupils, and warm
friends, all of whom, while guarding him against disagreeable
contests and painful collisions, have not ceased to spread abroad
his works, and with them admiration for his name. Moreover, this
exquisite, altogether lofty, and eminently aristocratic celebrity
has remained unattacked. A complete silence of criticism already
reigns round it, as if posterity were come; and in the brilliant
audience which flocked together to hear the too long silent poet
there was neither reticence nor restriction, unanimous praise was
on the lips of all.

...He has known how to give to new thoughts a new form. That
element of wildness and abruptness which belongs to his country
has found its expression in bold dissonances, in strange
harmonies, while the delicacy and grace which belong to his
personality were revealed in a thousand contours, in a thousand
embellishments of an inimitable fancy.

In Monday's concert Chopin had chosen in preference those of
his works which swerve more from the classical forms. He
played neither concerto, nor sonata, nor fantasia, nor
variations, but preludes, studies, nocturnes, and mazurkas.
Addressing himself to a society rather than to a public, he
could show himself with impunity as he is, an elegiac poet,
profound, chaste, and dreamy. He did not need either to
astonish or to overwhelm, he sought for delicate sympathy
rather than for noisy enthusiasm. Let us say at once that he
had no reason to complain of want of sympathy. From the first
chords there was established a close communication between him
and his audience. Two studies and a ballade were encored, and
had it not been for the fear of adding to the already great
fatigue which betrayed itself on his pale face, people would
have asked for a repetition of the pieces of the programme one
by one...

An account of the concert in La France musicale of May 2, 1841,
contained a general characterisation of Chopin's artistic position
with regard to the public coinciding with that giv