long. Well, Lenz shall set us afloat:--

In the undulation of the motion, in that suspension and unrest
[Hangen und Bangen], in the rubato as he understood it, Chopin
was captivating, every note was the outcome of the best taste
in the best sense of the word. If he introduced an
embellishment, which happened only rarely, it was always a
kind of miracle of good taste. Chopin was by his whole nature
unfitted to render Beethoven or Weber, who paint on a large
scale and with a big brush. Chopin was an artist in crayons
[Pastellmaler], but an INCOMPARABLE one! By the side of Liszt
he might pass with honour for that master's well-matched wife
[ebenburtige Frau, i.e., wife of equal rank]. Beethoven's B
flat major Sonata, Op. 106, and Chopin exclude each other.

One day Chopin took Lenz with him to the Baronne Krudner and her friend
the Countess Scheremetjew to whom he had promised to play the variations
of Beethoven's Sonata in A flat major (Op. 26). And how did he play
them?

Beautifully [says Lenz], but not so beautifully as his own
things, not enthrallingly [packend], not en relief, not as a
romance increasing in interest from variation to variation. He
whispered it mezza voce, but it was incomparable in the
cantilena, infinitely perfect in the phrasing of the
structure, ideally beautiful, but FEMININE! Beethoven is a man
and never ceases to be one!

Chopin played on a Pleyel, he made it a point never to give
lessons on another instrument; they were obliged to get a
Pleyel. All were charmed, I also was charmed, but only with
the tone of Chopin, with his touch, with his sweetness and
grace, with the purity of his style.

Chopin's purity of style, self-command, and aristocratic reserve have to
be quite especially noted by us who are accustomed to hear the master's
compositions played wildly, deliriously, ostentatiously. J. B. Cramer's
remarks on Chopin are significant. The master of a bygone age said of
the master of the then flourishing generation:--

I do not understand him, but he plays beautifully and
correctly, oh! very correctly, he does not give way to his
passion like other young men, but I do not understand him.

What one reads and hears of Chopin's playing agrees with the account
of his pupil Mikuli, who remarks that, with all the warmth which Chopin
possessed in so high a degree, his rendering was nevertheless temperate
[massvoll], chaste, nay, aristo