This is an arabesque of the finest colours.

Vladimir de Pachmann : "The first one is in a style that reminds one very forcibly of Schumann. "

James Huneker wrote: "Chopin's Preludes are largely personal, subjective, and intimate. This first one is not Bach-ian, yet it could have been written by no one but a devout Bach student. The pulsating, passionate, agitated, feverish, hasty qualities of the piece are modern; so is the changeful modulation. It is a beautiful composition, rising to no dramatic heights, but questioning and full of life."

Hans von Bulow called this Prelude 'Reunion'.

These "Vingt-quatre Preludes," Op. 28, published in September, 1839, have a twofold dedication, the French and English editions being dedicated 'a son ami Pleyel', and the German to 'Mr. J. C. Kessler'.

In the account (in the Gazette Musicale of the 2nd of May 1841) of a concert in which Chopin had played his Preludes, Liszt writes : "The Preludes of Chopin are compositions which stand quite apart, in an order of their own. They are not only, as the title would lead one to suppose, pieces destined to be played as an introduction to other pieces : the are poetic preludes, like those of some great contemporary poet, which lull the spirit into golden dreams, and elevate it into the regions of the ideal. Admirable for their great diversity, the workmanship and learning to be found in them are only appreciable on scrupulous examination. Everything in them seems absolutely spontaneous, thrown off in a sudden dash of inspiration. There is about them that freedom and grandeur which are the characteristics of works of genius. "

Robert Schumann wrote of these Preludes: "I must signalize them as most remarkable. I will confess I expected something quite different, carried out in the grand style of his studies. It is almost the contrary here; these are sketches, the beginning of studies, or, if you will, ruins, eagles' feathers, all strangely intermingled. But in every piece we find in his own hand, 'Frederic Chopin wrote it.' One recognizes him in his pauses, in his impetuous respiration. He is the boldest, the proudest poet soul of his time. To be sure the book also contains some morbid, feverish, repellant traits; but let everyone look in it for something that will enchant him. Philistines, however, must keep away."