virtuosity's

Updated: August 2, 2026

Chopin's musical ancestry is easily traced; as Poe had his Holley Chivers, Chopin had his Field. The germs of his second period are all there; from op. 1 to opus 22 virtuosity for virtuosity's sake is very evident. Liszt has said that in every young artist there is the virtuoso fever, and Chopin being a pianist did not escape the fever of the footlights.

James Huneker - Chopin : the Man and His Music

In fact, I shall confine myself to saying that in Chopin's works there are clearly distinguishable two styles the early virtuosic and the later poetic style. The latter is in a certain sense also virtuosic, but with this difference, that its virtuosity is not virtuosity for virtuosity's sake.

Frederick Niecks - Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 2