This may be a little circuitous. But working on Genet’s The Balcony, where Chopin’s “Funeral March” is the only music direction within the script. As it turns out, Chopin loved performance salons (poetry/music). He was particularly fond of Joseph Kessler’s Friday soirées, where Warsaw’s best musicians, professionals and amateurs, gathered for “quartets” and made music impromptu—without a pre-arranged program. In Kessler’s home Chopin not only took the opportunity to become acquainted with great works of music, but also the chance to share his experiences with other musicians and to learn from them. At one particular salon Chopin heard Beethoven’s last Trio “Archduke,” (imo, an unbelievable masterpiece) that left Chopin completely dumbfounded:

“… It’s a long time since I heard something equally great; there Beethoven mocks the whole world.”