URCH; GERMAN AND POLISH SOCIETY; MORLACCHI, SIGNORA PALAZZESI,
RASTRELLI, ROLLA, DOTZAUER, KUMMER, KLENGEL, AND OTHER MUSICIANS; A
CONCERT TALKED ABOUT BUT NOT GIVEN; SIGHT-SEEING.--AFTER A WEEK, BY
PRAGUE TO VIENNA.--ARRIVES AT VIENNA TOWARDS THE END OF NOVEMBER, 1830.

Thanks to Chopin's extant letters to his family and friends it is not
difficult to give, with the help of some knowledge of the contemporary
artists and of the state of music in the towns he visited, a pretty
clear account of his experiences and mode of life during the nine or ten
months which intervene between his departure from Warsaw and his arrival
in Paris. Without the letters this would have been impossible, and for
two reasons: one of them is that, although already a notable man, Chopin
was not yet a noted man; and the other, that those with whom he then
associated have, like himself, passed away from among us.

Chopin, who, as the reader will remember, left Warsaw on November
1, 1830, was joined at Kalisz by Titus Woyciechowski. Thence the two
friends travelled together to Vienna. They made their first halt at
Breslau, which they reached on November 6. No sooner had Chopin put
up at the hotel Zur goldenen Gans, changed his dress, and taken some
refreshments, than he rushed off to the theatre. During his stay in
Breslau he was present at three performances--at Raimund's fantastical
comedy "Der Alpenkonig und der Menschenfeind", Auber's "Maurer und
Schlosser (Le Macon)," and Winter's "Das unterbrochene Opferfest", a now
superannuated but then still popular opera. The players succeeded better
than the singers in gaining the approval of their fastidious auditor,
which indeed might have been expected. As both Chopin and Woyciechowski
were provided with letters of introduction, and the gentlemen to whom
they were addressed did all in their power to make their visitors'
sojourn as pleasant as possible, the friends spent in Breslau four happy
days. It is characteristic of the German musical life in those days that
in the Ressource, a society of that town, they had three weekly
concerts at which the greater number of the performers were amateurs.
Capellmeister Schnabel, an old acquaintance of Chopin's, had invited the
latter to come to a morning rehearsal. When Chopin entered, an amateur,
a young barrister, was going to rehearse Moscheles' E flat major
Concerto. Schnabel, on seeing the newcomer, asked him to try the
piano. Chopin sat down and played