Felix Mendelssohn stayed in Paris between December 1831 and April 1832. His stay overlapped with those of fellow-pianists and friends Frederick Chopin, Franz Liszt and Ferdinand Hiller. Hiller later wrote an account of his long friendship with Mendelssohn, telling the following story.

At the time (early 1832), all four men were were aged between 20 and 23. Mendelssohn had earlier met and heard Chopin play in Munich and was greatly impressed with his abilities. The story concerns a meeting the four had with Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), a German pianist, teacher and composer, who was influential in Parisian music circles. Mendelssohn had known Kalkbrenner from Berlin, and suspected him of faking improvisations (ie, playing a written piece from memory while telling people it was improvised). Kalkbrenner had further angered Mendelssohn by insisting, upon meeting Chopin in Paris, that Chopin take his group piano classes to “improve” his technique. Chopin, too polite to refuse, did so for a time.

I remember that one day, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Liszt, and I [Hiller], had established ourselves in front of a cafe on Boulevard des Italians, at a season and an hour when our presence there was very exceptional. Suddenly, we saw Kalkbrenner coming along. It was his great ambition always to represent the perfect gentleman, and knowing how extremely disagreeable it would be to him to meet such a noisy company, we surrounded him in the friendliest manner, and assailed him with such a volley of talk that he was nearly driven to despair, which of course delighted us. Youth has no mercy.”

Ferdinand Hiller [1874]: Mendelssohn: Letters and Recollections. (Translated by M. E. von Glehn). Macmillan. Page 26.