He was intensely interested in and open-minded to ideas, which, if they were not advanced, were at least broad and noble.

He gave proof of this when Liszt's famous _Messe_ was performed for the first time at St.Eustache.
He went to its defense in the face of an almost unanimous opposition.
He said to me one day, "You have written a duet for a flute and clarinet for Dorus and Leroy.
Won't you ask them to play it at one of my evenings ?" The two great artists did not have to be urged.

Then an unheard of thing happened.

As he never had a written programme on such occasions, Rossini managed so that they believed that the duet was his own.

It is easy to imagine the success of the piece under these conditions.