CHAPTER III.
CHOPINʼS EARLY MANHOOD. HIS FIRST JOURNEY. HIS RELATIONS WITH PRINCE ANTON RADZIWILL.
HE year 1825 found Fredericʼs social and artistic circle continually increasing in numbers and influence, and the fame of his extraordinary musical talents spreading far and wide. He excited universal interest, and it is a proof of his popularity that the only strikingly successful concerts were those in which he took part. His marvellous playing at two grand concerts, given for charitable objects, in the hall of the Conservatoire, on May 27th, and June 10th, 1825, awakened unbounded approbation. As the best pianist in the capital, Chopin was summoned to play before the Emperor, Alexander I., who, during his stay in Warsaw, was desirous of hearing the newly-invented Aelomelodicon.[10] The instrument was placed in the Protestant Church, for the sake of heightening the tone by its being heard under the enormous dome of that building. In token of his admiration of the wonderful performance of the talented youth, then little more than a boy, the Emperor presented him with a valuable diamond ring.
The same year saw the publication of Chopinʼs first printed work, the Rondo dedicated to Madame von Linde. Neither this nor the following “Rondo à la Masur,” op. 5, also published in Warsaw, made him famous abroad, but in his own city he was already regarded as a popular and rapidly ripening artist. Looking at their son merely as a distinguished dilettante, his parents had not made music his chief study, but when they saw that Frederic was by nature designed for a great musician, they removed all obstacles, and left him to the undisturbed enjoyment of his piano and his poetic dreams.
Everywhere he was warmly welcomed: in the drawing-rooms of the aristocracy, by his comrades at the Conservatoire, or the Lyceum, of which he was considered the highest ornament, and where he formed some life-long friendships. Among these friends we may mention Titus Woyciechowski, to whom he dedicated his “Variations, op. 2;” Alexander Rembielinski;[11] Wilhelm von Kolberg; Johann Matuszynski, Stanislas Kozmian, now President of the Scientific Society at Posen; Eustachius Marylski; Dominicus Magnuszewski and Stephan Witwicki, both poets of talent; Celinski; Hube, and Julius Fontana.[12]
NO JEALOUSY OF HIM AMONG HIS FELLOWS. Frederic excited no jealousy among his fellow students at the Conservatoire, for his talents as pianist and composer were so pre-eminent that they all bowed before him as their master. Kind and affable by disposition he had also an innate grace, while, from his education and refined surroundings, he possessed, even in early youth, the tact of a grown-up person. These qualities won the esteem and affection of all who knew him, and no one was offended by his practical jokes, mimicries, or caricatures.
The activity of the young artist was intense, and although his excessive exertions appeared to him but slight, they undoubtedly injured his delicate constitution. Fredericʼs parents having been advised by the physicians to send their youngest daughter, Emily, to Bad Reinerz, in Silesia, they thought it well to let him accompany her that he might try the whey cure. Accordingly, at the beginning of the holidays of 1826, the mother, Louise, Emily, and Frederic went to the then much frequented spring. During their visit a poor widow, who had vainly been seeking help from the healing stream, died, leaving two young children, under the care of a faithful nurse, but without sufficient means for the funeral and the journey home. Hearing of their need, Chopin made the noblest use of his talents. He arranged a concert for the benefit of the poor children, and had the satisfaction of obtaining a good sum. By his masterly playing he won the admiration of the connoisseurs; by his benevolence, the esteem of all generous minds. He became the object of the most courteous attention. A few days after the concert Frederic and his family left Reinerz, and spent the rest of the summer at the village of Strzyzewo, part of the estate of his godmother, Madame von Wiesiolowska, sister to Count Skarbek.
Prince Anton Radziwill, a wealthy nobleman, related to the Prussian Royal family, and Governor of the Duchy of Posen, had his summer residence in the neighbouring village, Antonin. A passionate lover of music, a keen connoisseur, and a thoroughly trained composer, he had obtained celebrity by his music to the first part of Goetheʼs Faust, which, by Royal command, was for several years performed annually in his honour at the Berlin Academy for Singing. He had a very agreeable tenor voice, and also played the violoncello well. His house, in Posen, was the rendezvous for the best artists, and quartet parties for the performance of classical music were held in his salons nearly every week, the Prince himself playing the violoncello.
Frederic having availed himself of an invitation to Antonin, the Prince took a great fancy to him, and was charmed with his playing. In May, 1829, when he went to Warsaw as representative of the Prussian court, at the coronation of the Emperor VISITED BY PRINCE ANTON RADZIWILL. Nicholas, he visited Frederic at his fatherʼs house, and was very pressing in inviting him to his establishment at Posen. There was no further personal intercourse between this magnate and our artist, yet writers, ignorant of the facts, have represented the Prince as Chopinʼs benefactor, and as having supplied the means for his education. Franz Liszt was the first to promulgate this error in his book, entitled “Francois Chopin,” written in French, shortly after the masterʼs death, in which he says, “supplementing the limited means of the family, the Prince bestowed on Frederic the inestimable gift of a good and complete education. Through a friend, M. Antoine Korzuchowski, the Prince, whose own elevated mind enabled him to understand the requirements of an artistic career, always paid his educational expenses. From this time until the death of Chopin, M. Korzuchowski held the closest relations of friendship with him.” In this statement there is not a word of truth, yet it has been repeated not only by foreign, but, what is less pardonable, even by Polish authors.
We are fully aware that in the portions of the work relating to Chopinʼs youth, manners, compositions, and to the Polish national music, Liszt received much help from a Polish emigrant, Franz Grzymala. He had been a deputy at the Diet, and was an able author and journalist; he died in Paris in 1871, the day after the capitulation. Not having made Chopinʼs acquaintance until his residence in Paris, it does not appear, from what he told Liszt, that he could have possessed any accurate information about his early life. Julius Fontana, who had known Chopin from childhood, entered a protest against Lisztʼs assertion, so also did the parents of the great artist, who were sadly pained to read that Prince Radziwill had entirely provided for Fredericʼs education. Professor at three large academies in Warsaw, and proprietor of a flourishing pension, surely Nicholas Chopin would have found means for the education of his dearly loved and only son.
An equally untrue report has been spread to the effect that Chopin travelled to Italy at the expense of Prince Radziwill. In reality the expenses of the journey were defrayed by the receipts of three numerously attended concerts given in Warsaw. The first time he asked his father for money was when he had determined on going to Paris, after a sojourn of eighteen months in the beautiful Austrian capital. In his charming, child-like manner, he lamented that he should be the cause of additional expenditure to his parents, to whom he had, he thought, already cost quite enough. His father sent him the money, and an affectionate letter, expressing his willingness to supply him with means, until he procured some regular mode of subsistence in Paris.
DEDICATES HIS TRIO TO THE PRINCE. As a mark of friendship and respect for the distinguished composer of the music to Faust, Frederic dedicated to him his Trio, for pianoforte and violoncello, op. 8, composed in Warsaw between 1827 and 1829; so that in point of fact Chopin, not the Prince, was the donor. It is only fair to Liszt to say that he is less to blame for the circulation of the error we have pointed out, than Grzymala and those who blindly believed and promulgated a statement so utterly false.
