He managed in 1834 to go to Aix-la-Chapelle
to attend the Lower Rhenish Music Festival. There he met Hiller
and Mendelssohn at the painter Schadow's and improvised
marvellously, so Hiller writes. He visited Coblenz with Hiller
before returning home.
Professor Niecks has a deep spring of personal humor which he
taps at rare intervals. He remarks that "the coming to Paris and
settlement there of his friend Matuszynski must have been very
gratifying to Chopin, who felt so much the want of one with whom
to sigh." This slanting allusion is matched by his treatment of
George Sand. After literally ratting her in a separate chapter,
he winds up his work with the solemn assurance that he abstains
"from pronouncing judgment because the complete evidence did not
seem to me to warrant my doing so." This is positively delicious.
When I met this biographer at Bayreuth in 1896, I told him how
much I had enjoyed his work, adding that I found it indispensable
in the re-construction of Chopin. Professor Niecks gazed at me
blandly--he is most amiable and scholarly-looking--and remarked,
"You are not the only one.
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