ctively dedicated to Mdlle. de Thun-Hohenstein, Madame G.
d'Ivri, and Mdlle. A. d'Eichthal. This last work appeared at Paris
first in an Album des Pianistes, a collection of unpublished pieces by
Thalberg, Chopin, Doehler, Osborne, Liszt, and Mereaux. Two things in
connection with this album may yet be mentioned--namely, that Mereaux
contributed to it a Fantasia on a mazurka by Chopin, and that Stephen
Heller reviewed it in the Gazette musicale. Chopin was by no means
pleased with the insertion of the waltzes in Schlesinger's Album des
Pianistes. But more of this and his labours and grievances as a composer
in the next chapter.

There are also to be recorded some public and semi-public appearances of
Chopin as a virtuoso. On February 25, 1838, the Gazette musicale
informs its readers that Chopin, "that equally extraordinary and modest
pianist," had lately been summoned to Court to be heard there en cercle
intime. His inexhaustible improvisations, which almost made up the
whole of the evening's entertainment, were particularly admired by the
audience, which knew as well as a gathering of artists how to appreciate
the composer's merits. At a concert given by Valentin Alkan on March 3,
1838, Chopin performed with Zimmermann, Gutmann, and the concert-giver,
the latter's arrangement of Beethoven's A major Symphony (or rather some
movements from it) for two pianos and eight hands. And in the Gazette
musicale of March 25, 1838, there is a report by M. Legouve of Chopin's
appearance at a concert given by his countryman Orlowski at Rouen, where
the latter had settled after some years stay in Paris. From a writer in
the Journal de Rouen (December 1, 1849) we learn that ever since this
concert, which was held in the town-hall, and at which the composer
played his E minor Concerto with incomparable perfection, the name of
Chopin had in the musical world of Rouen a popularity which secured to
his memory an honourable and cordial sympathy. But here is what Legouve
says about this concert. I transcribe the notice in full, because it
shows us both how completely Chopin had retired from the noise and
strife of publicity, and how high he stood in the estimation of his
contemporaries.

Here is an event which is not without importance in the
musical world. Chopin, who has not been heard in public for
several years; Chopin, who imprisons his charming genius in an
audience of five or six persons; Chopin, who resembles those
encha