ABSTRACT
The man who boasted of knowing "all those who are at the head of the art" did indeed include among his friends some of the most prominent personalities of his day: Rossini, Liszt, Berlioz, and to a modest extent, Chopin. Rossini, who conquered Paris in 1823 by liberating it from the pompous dullness of Neo-classical productions, formed an enduring friendship with Balzac from the earliest days when each discovered in the other similar qualities: youthfulness and exuberance, and similar likes: melody and coffee. Rossini's name appears in Balzac's works from before Le Pere Goriot to after Honorine, and in his correspondence, especially in that to la cara donna assoluta, as the composer had dubbed Mme Hanska. Unlike the gregarious Liszt and Berlioz, Frederic Chopin chose his friends with circumspection, anxious to avoid the more boisterous practices of Romanticism, While others fought musical prejudices openly, he fought them unobtrusively by introducing new harmonies and a new melodic spirit into his compositions.
