The first encounter was at Vienna where the success of _Tancred_ crushed forever the dramatic ambitions of the author of _Fidelio_; later, at Paris, they used _Guillaume Tell_ in combating the increasing invasion of the symphony and chamber music.
I was twenty when M.and Mme.

Viardot introduced me to Rossini.

He invited me to his small evening receptions and received me with his usual rather meaningless cordiality.

At the end of a month, when he found that I asked to be heard neither as a pianist nor as a composer, he changed his attitude.

"Come and see me tomorrow morning," he said.
"We can talk then." I was quick to respond to this flattering invitation and I found a very different Rossini from the one of the evening.