Wrocław & Frédéric Chopin

Together with his mother, he traveled to Lower Silesia at the turn of July and August 1826, to the native region of his professor, Józef Elsner. This trip was not merely for tourism but also a health retreat. Accompanied by his mother, Chopin set off towards Duszniki (Reinertz), joining Ludwika Skarbkowa who was already in the area.

On the way, which Fryderyk detailed in a letter sent that summer to Wilhelm Kolberg, he listed Wrocław as the twelfth “stop” on the route. The fact that a rest in the city was planned may be indicated by Professor Józef Elsner, who had been connected with the city for many years, entrusting his pupil with letters for his friends in Wrocław. Fryderyk partly fulfilled this task when they stayed overnight in Wrocław on the way to Duszniki; as he wrote – “Mr. Latzel was very pleased with the letter.” On the return journey from the spa, he visited Friedrich W. Berner – an organist at St. Elizabeth’s Church, and Joseph I. Schnabl, a conductor active at the Wrocław Cathedral. It is assumed that Fryderyk demonstrated his pianistic skills to the recipients of the letters.

It is unknown if, during his brief stays, Chopin managed to visit anything in Wrocław besides the two mentioned churches. A similar visit occurred three years later when Fryderyk returned from Vienna, where he had gone in the summer with several friends. Only in November 1830 did he stay longer in the city. Together with Tytus Woyciechowski, they stayed at the “Zur Goldenen Gans” (Golden Goose) inn at Junkernstrasse (now Ofiar Oświęcimskich Street). On the evening of their arrival, they went to the Municipal Theatre, located at Taschenstrasse (now at the intersection of Oławska and Piotra Skargi streets), to see “The Alpine King.” Maria Zduniak writes about this stay of the two friends, identifying the places visited by Chopin:
‘On Sunday, November 7, Chopin and Woyciechowski went to the Wrocław Cathedral to meet Joseph I. Schnabl, a conductor and composer whom he had met personally in 1826. Schnabl, pleased with the meeting, invited the guests to a morning rehearsal of a concert scheduled for the next evening in the Great Redutowa Hall on Biskupia Street, then known as the “Hotel de Pologne” hall.’|

What happened next during the rehearsal at the resort is best described by Fryderyk’s own words, taken from a letter to his family in Warsaw, written from Wrocław on Tuesday, November 9, 1830: ‘I found there, as usual, a sparsely gathered orchestra for rehearsal, a piano, and a gentleman named Hellwig, an amateur, preparing to play Moscheles’ first E-flat major Concerto. Before he sat down at the instrument, Schnabl, who had not heard me for four years, asked me to try the piano. It was hard to refuse, so I sat and played a few variations. Schnabl was immensely delighted, Mr. Hellwig chickened out, and others began to ask me to perform in the evening. Especially Schnabl insisted so earnestly that I did not dare to refuse the old man. He is a great friend of Mr. Elsner’s; but I told him I would do it only for him, as I had not played for several weeks, nor did I intend to show off in Wrocław. The old man replied that he knew all about it and that he wanted to ask me yesterday, seeing me in church, but he did not dare. So, I went with his son to fetch the music and played them the Romance and Rondo from the Second Concerto. At the rehearsal, the Germans were amazed by my playing: ‘What easy play he has,’ they said, about the composition nothing. Even Tytus heard one say, ‘he can play, but not compose.”

There are no detailed accounts of the places visited by Fryderyk and Tytus. It is known that their guide in Wrocław was a merchant named Scharff, whom they met by chance. It turned out amusingly, as this gentleman, wanting to properly host the young men in his city, decided to invite them to a concert: ‘The next day he signed us up for the Bursa and finally got us Fremdenkarten, for yesterday’s concert – Fryderyk recalls in the same letter. […] What must have been his […] surprise when this Fremder was the main figure of the musical evening. Besides the Rondo, I improvised for connoisseurs on the theme of ‘La muette de Portici.’ After which, an overture was played, followed by dances.’ [3] During his several visits to Wrocław (in 1826, 1829, and 1830), the composer visited, among others: the Municipal Theatre (at the then Taschenstrasse, at the intersection of present-day Oławska and Piotra Skargi streets), the Great Redutowa Hall, then known as the “Hotel de Pologne” hall (on Biskupia Street), the “Ruciany wreath” inn (“Rautenkranz” on Oławska Street), and the “Under the Golden Goose” inn (at the then Junkernstrasse, now Ofiar Oświęcimskich), which was destroyed during World War II [4]. Chopin also visited St. John the Baptist’s Cathedral on Ostrów Tumski and St. Elizabeth’s Church on Św. Mikołaja Street.




[1] M. Zduniak, Fryderyk Chopin we Wrocławiu i popularyzacja jego dzieł w dziewiętnastowiecznej stolicy Dolnego Śląska, w: Międzynarodowe Festiwale Chopinowskie w Dusznikach Zdroju 1946-1999, Wrocław 2000, s. 17-27.
[2] Korespondencja Fryderyka Chopina, red. B. E. Sydow, T. I, s. 148
[3] ibid.
[4] Patrz: Maria Zduniak, Muzyka i muzycy polscy w dziewiętnastowiecznym Wrocławiu, Wrocław 1984, s. 93-99. Autorka pisze też, że “dotychczas podawane miejsce występu Chopina we Wrocławiu w sali przy Pl. Teatralnym (…) jest błędne”, s. 95.