to show
one's self almost affectionate. No, you cannot imagine what it
is: here one sees only his neckties; one does him the honour
of taking him seriously....There remains, therefore, nothing
but to bear him. What exasperates me is his collection of
little songs, compositions in the most vulgar style, without
the least knowledge of the most elementary rules of harmony
and poetry, concluding with quadrille ritornelli, and which he
calls Recueil de Chants Polonais. You know how I wished to
understand, and how I have in part succeeded in understanding,
our national music. Therefore you will judge what pleasure I
experience when, laying hold of a motive of mine here and
there, without taking account of the fact that all the beauty
of a melody depends on the accompaniment, he reproduces it
with the taste of a frequenter of suburban taverns
(guinguettes) and public-houses (cabarets). And one cannot say
anything to him, for he comprehends nothing beyond what he has
taken from you.

Edouard Wolff came to Paris in 1835, provided with a letter of
introduction from Chopin's master Zywny; [FOOTNOTE: See Vol. I., p. 31.]
but, notwithstanding this favourable opening of their acquaintanceship,
he was only for some time on visiting terms with his more distinguished
compatriot. Wolff himself told me that Chopin would never hear one of
his compositions. From any other informant I would not have accepted
this statement as probable, still less as true. [FOOTNOTE: Wolff
dedicated in 1841 his Grand Allegro de Concert pour piano still, Op. 59,
a son ami Chopin; but the latter never repaid him the compliment.] These
remarks about Wolff remind me of another piece of information I got from
this pianist-composer a few months before his death--namely, that Chopin
hated all Jews, Meyerbeer and Halevy among the rest. What Pole does not
hate the Jews? That Chopin was not enamoured of them we have seen in his
letters. But that he hated Meyerbeer is a more than doubtful statement.
Franchomme said to me that Meyerbeer was not a great friend of Chopin's;
but that the latter, though he did not like his music, liked him as a
man. If Lenz reports accurately, Meyerbeer's feelings towards Chopin
were, no doubt, warmer than Chopin's towards Meyerbeer. When after
the scene about the rhythm of a mazurka Chopin had left the room, Lenz
introduced himself to Meyerbeer as a friend of the Counts Wielhorski,
of St. Petersburg. On c