The best society: 1834–9.

By late 1834 he had settled into a stable routine of teaching, composing and performing in the salons. There were, however, some more public appearances during the season of 1834–5, and of these the most important were two concerts in April: a performance of the E minor Concerto at the Thé â tre Italien under Habeneck, and an appearance under the same conductor at the prestigious Socié té des Concerts du Conservatoire, where he chose to play the Grande polonaise brillante op.22. The critical reception of these concerts was by no means unfavourable, but it is significant that following them Chopin resolutely refused invitations to appear before the wider public for several years. Increasingly he saw himself as a composer rather than a pianist-composer, and by the summer of 1835 he had consolidated the considerable achievements of his shorter genre pieces within the context of more large-scale compositions, including the two Polonaises op.26, the first Scherzo op.20 and the first Ballade op.23. The more enlightened critics were beginning to see in these works the mark of a composer of real stature – one of the most radical and penetrating musical minds of the post-Beethoven era.

In this climate, thoughts of returning to Poland may have steadily receded from Chopin's mind. At the same time he depended heavily on the Polish community in Paris, and especially on the colourful Wojciech Grzymał a, the earnest Julian Fontana (who became his general factotum and copyist), and, closest of all, Jan Matuszyń ski, who had moved in with Chopin when he arrived in Paris in the spring of 1834. He undoubtedly had periods of homesickness and debated returning to see his family on numerous occasions. But despite the official amnesties he was nervous of renewing his Russian passport and placing himself at the mercy of Russian officials in Warsaw. In the end he arranged to spend a month with his parents in Karlsbad in the summer of 1835. It was on his return journey from that happy occasion that he had another reminder of home, meeting in Dresden with one of his father's boarders Felix Wodziń ski. When he called on the rest of the Wodziń ski family, he was greatly taken with the 16-year-old Maria, whom he had last seen five years earlier in Warsaw. The following summer (1836) he spent the whole of August with the Wodziń skis at Marienbad, and on 9 September, his last night there, he proposed marriage to Maria ‘at the twilight hour’ and was given some grounds for hope by her mother (‘Look after your health since everything depends on that’).

The next year was a period of waiting, and it is intriguing that in the course of it Chopin's social life intersected briefly with that of George Sand. In October the novelist had installed herself at the Hô tel de France along with Liszt and his mistress Marie d'Agoult. Chopin met her at the Liszt salon and at a soiré e in his own apartment, and was decidedly unimpressed. ‘What an unattractive person La Sand is. Is she really a woman? ’ At this stage, his thoughts of love were directed only to one source, and, as the season drew to a close, he began to despair of hearing from the Wodziń skis, whom he hoped to join again for the summer months. A brief visit to London with Camille Pleyel in late July 1837 found him in ‘a dreadful state of mind’, and it was during that visit that a letter from Maria's mother was forwarded to London, putting paid to any hopes of marriage. Alone and depressed, he spent the rest of the summer in Paris immersed in work, preparing some of his existing pieces for publication (including the Etudes op.25 and the Impromptu op.29) and working on new compositions such as the second Scherzo, the Nocturnes op.32 and perhaps the marche funè bre which would later be incorporated into the B minor Sonata (the precise dating of this movement is difficult to determine).

The following April (1838) Chopin met George Sand again. Both of them had come through a difficult period involving a sense of loss, and this time their love was kindled almost instantly, despite the obvious contrast in their backgrounds and personalities. It was an attraction of opposites perhaps, and Sand was probably right when she later remarked that it had been above all a strong maternal instinct which had drawn her to Chopin. Whatever the truth of that, the pair were lovers by early June, and they conducted the early stages of their affair mainly within the circle of Sand's friend, Countess Charlotte Marliani, wife of the Spanish consul in Paris. It was at the Marliani's that they hatched a plot to spend the winter months of 1838–9 in Majorca with Sand's two children, partly to escape the difficulties posed by her former lover Fé licien Mallefille. It was an ill-considered venture, during which Chopin's health deteriorated rapidly. For most of the time their rooms were in an old Carthusian monastery at Valldemosa, a few hours' journey from Palma, and it was accommodation which was quite unable to withstand the harsh Majorcan winter. Sand proved herself an attentive nurse, an effective tutor (to her two children) and a resourceful provider (the locals treated the group with the utmost suspicion and were reluctant even to sell them basic provisions), while at the same time carrying on with her writing. Nor was Chopin idle in Majorca. On 22 January he was able to write to Pleyel, ‘I am sending you my Pré ludes. I finished them on your little piano which arrived in the best possible conditions in spite of the sea, the bad weather and the Palma customs’.

By late January Chopin's illness had reached a shocking state, and the party was obliged to leave the island. There followed a long period of convalescence in Marseilles under the care of Dr Cauviè res, a friend of the Marlianis. Although the Majorcan doctors had clearly diagnosed consumption, Cauviè res, like other French doctors who attended to Chopin, insisted that there was no major illness (it is distinctly possible that different traditions of medical opinion rather than faulty diagnoses lay behind these divergent views). In any event, Chopin was consoled. In a letter to Fontana from Marseilles, he wrote specifically, ‘they no longer consider me consumptive’. Dr Cauviè res was undoubtedly right about the need for rest, and by May Chopin was feeling bored, but very much healthier. He had already decided to spend the summer months at Sand's home in Berry, and on 1 June he caught his first glimpse of Nohant, the manor house which would play such an important role in his life for the next eight years.

Chopin, Fryderyk Franciszek