pleasing ease
and freedom. Stephen Heller told me that it was a wonderful sight to see
one of those small hands expand and cover a third of the keyboard. It
was like the opening of the mouth of a serpent which is going to swallow
a rabbit whole. In fact, Chopin appeared to be made of caoutchouc.

In the criticisms on Chopin's public performances we have met again and
again with the statement that he brought little tone out of the piano.
Now, although it is no doubt true that Chopin could neither subdue to
his sway large audiences nor successfully battle with a full orchestra,
it would be a mistake to infer from this that he was always a weak and
languid player. Stephen Heller, who declared that Chopin's tone was
rich, remembered hearing him play a duet with Moscheles (the latter's
duet, of which Chopin was so fond), and on this occasion the Polish
pianist, who insisted on playing the bass, drowned the treble of his
partner, a virtuoso well known for his vigour and brilliancy. Were we,
however, to form our judgment on this single item of evidence, we should
again arrive at a wrong conclusion. Where musical matters--i.e.,
matters generally estimated according to individual taste and momentary
impressibility alone--are concerned, there is safety only in the
multitude of witnesses. Let us, therefore, hear first what Chopin's
pupils have got to say on this point, and then go and inquire further.
Gutmann said that Chopin played generally very quietly, and rarely,
indeed hardly ever, fortissimo. The A flat major Polonaise (Op. 53),
for instance, he could not thunder forth in the way we are accustomed to
hear it. As for the famous octave passages which occur in it, he began
them pianissimo and continued thus without much increase in loudness.
And, then, Chopin never thumped. M. Mathias remarks that his master
had extraordinary vigour, but only in flashes. Mikuli's preface to his
edition of the works of Chopin affords more explicit information. We
read there:--

The tone which Chopin brought out of the instrument was
always, especially in the cantabiles, immense (riesengross),
only Field could perhaps in this respect be compared to him. A
manly energy gave to appropriate passages overpowering effect--
energy without roughness (Rohheit); but, on the other hand,
he knew how by delicacy--delicacy without affectation--to
captivate the hearer.

We may summarise these various depositions by saying with Lenz that,
bei