tness of Chopin. Indeed, how could they? He
was too original to be at once fully understood. There are people who
imagine that the difficulties of Chopin's music arise from its Polish
national characteristics, and that to the Poles themselves it is as
easy as their mother-tongue; this, however, is a mistake. In fact,
other countries had to teach Poland what is due to Chopin. That the
aristocracy of Paris, Polish and native, did not comprehend the whole
Chopin, although it may have appreciated and admired his sweetness,
elegance, and exquisiteness, has been remarked by Liszt, an eye and
ear-witness and an excellent judge. But his testimony is not needed to
convince one of the fact. A subtle poet, be he ever so national, has
thoughts and corresponding language beyond the ken of the vulgar, who
are to be found in all ranks, high and low. Chopin, imbued as he
was with the national spirit, did nevertheless not manifest it in
a popularly intelligible form, for in passing through his mind it
underwent a process of idealisation and individualisation. It has been
repeatedly said that the national predominates over the universal in
Chopin's music; it is a still less disputable truth that the individual
predominates therein over the national. There are artist-natures whose
tendency is to expand and to absorb; others again whose tendency is to
contract and to exclude. Chopin is one of the most typical instances of
the latter; hence, no wonder that he was not at once fully understood by
his countrymen. The great success which Chopin's subsequent concerts in
Warsaw obtained does not invalidate E. Wolff's statement, which indeed
is confirmed by the composer's own remarks on the taste of the public
and its reception of his compositions. Moreover, we shall see that those
pieces pleased most in which, as in the Fantasia and Krakowiak, the
national raw material was merely more or less artistically dressed up,
but not yet digested and assimilated; if the Fantasia left the audience
cold at the first concert, this was no doubt owing to the inadequacy of
the performance.

No sooner was the first concert over than, with his head still full of
it, Chopin set about making preparations for a second, which took place
within a week after the first. The programme was as follows:--

PART I

1. Symphony by Nowakowski.

2. Allegro from the Concerto in F minor, composed and played by Chopin.

3. Air Varie by De Beriot, played by Bielawski.

4. Ad