"
"But," he continues," they are all models of bold, indwelling,
creative force, truly poetic creations, though not without small
blots in their details, but on the whole striking and powerful.
Yet, if I give my complete opinion, I must confess that his
earlier collection seems more valuable to me. Not that I mean to
imply any deterioration, for these recently published studies
were nearly all written at the same time as the earlier ones, and
only a few were composed a little while ago--the first in A flat
and the last magnificent one in C minor, both of which display
great mastership."
One may be permitted to disagree with Schumann, for op. 25
contains at least two of Chopin's greater studies--A minor and C
minor. The most valuable point of the passage quoted is the
clenching of the fact that the studies were composed in a bunch.
That settles many important psychological details. Chopin had
suffered much before going to Paris, had undergone the
purification and renunciation of an unsuccessful love affair, and
arrived in Paris with his style fully formed--in his case the
style was most emphatically the man.
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