The theme comes from Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera 'Robert Le Diable' and it begins in E and ends in A major, it was Auguste Franchomme who wrote the cello part.

The critics were enthusiastic about this arrangement which they attributed exclusively to the genius of Chopin becouse of the unmistakable 'elegance'of this piece.

Schumann said: "It seems to me that Chopin sketched the whole of it, and that Franchomme said "yes" to everything; for what Chopin touches takes his form and spirit, and in this minor salon-style he expresses himself with grace and distinction, compared with which all the gentility of other brilliant composers together with all their elegance vanish into thin air."

Chopin wrote enthusiast about this opera from Meyerbeer in a letter to T. Woyciechowski on december 12, 1831: "If there was ever a brilliant mise en scene at the Opera- Italien, I cannot believe that it equalled that of Robert le Diable, the new five-act opera of Meyerbeer, who has also written "Il Crociato." "Robert" is a masterpiece of the new school, where the devils sing through speaking-trumpets and the dead rise from their graves, but not as in "Szarlatan" [an opera of Kurpinski's], only from fifty to sixty persons all at once! The stage represents the interior of a convent ruin illuminated by the clear light of the full moon whose rays fall on the graves of the nuns. In the last act appear in brilliant candle-light monks with ancense, and from behind the scene are heard the solemn tones of the organ. Meyerbeer has made himself immortal by this work; but he had to wait more than three years before he could get it performed. People say that he has spent more than 20,000 francs for the organ and other things made use of in the opera. "