Beethoven--save in the C sharp
minor and several other sonatas--was not sympathetic. Schubert he
found rough, Weber, in his piano music, too operatic and Schumann
he dismissed without a word. He told Heller that the "Carneval"
was really not music at all. This remark is one of the
curiosities of musical anecdotage.
But he had his gay moments when he would gossip, chatter, imitate
every one, cut up all manner of tricks and, like Wagner, stand on
his head. Perhaps it was feverish, agitated gayety, yet somehow
it seemed more human than that eternal Thaddeus of Warsaw
melancholy and regret for the vanished greatness and happiness of
Poland--a greatness and happiness that never had existed. Chopin
disliked letter writing and would go miles to answer one in
person. He did not hate any one in particular, being rather
indifferent to every one and to political events--except where
Poland was concerned. Theoretically he hated Jews and Russians,
yet associated with both. He was, like his music, a bundle of
unreconciled affirmations and evasions and never could have been
contented anywhere or with any one.
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