136 Mr, George Heaschel [June 2, 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, June 2, 1905. 



His Gkace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G. D.C.L. F.R.S., 



President, in the Chair. 



George Henschel, Esq. 



Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms. 



From the title of my discourse it will be gathered that in speaking 

 to-night of Johannes Brahms I do not propose to refer — at any rate 

 not in a critical sense — to his works. Outside of Germany and 

 Austria, the master's native and adopted countries, these works are 

 known and loved nowhere better, nor more widely, than here in 

 England. Yea, as regards Brahms' place among the composers of 

 the world, I do not hesitate to assert that even in the Yaterland 

 nothing, in my opinion, has been \\Titten or published, which in 

 soundness of judgment, discrimination and appreciation, can compare 

 with Mr. W. H. Hadow's admirable article, " Brahms and the Classical 

 Tradition," published soon after the master's death in the ' Contem- 

 porary Review.' Brahms however never having visited this country, 

 and the number of those who knew him at all intimately, being a very 

 small one even on the other side of the channel, I venture to hope 

 that these personal recollections of Brahms, and excerpts from a 

 journal I kept when travelling with him in the seventies, will not be 

 unwelcome to the many who, though more or less familiar with 

 Brahms the composer, would fain know a little more of Brahms the 

 man. His work, as Mr. Hadow rightly remarks, is still too near us 

 for any certain or dogmatic estimate of its value. 



But, I may add, the heart, the soul of man know of no time. 

 The infinite variety of their outward manifestation will ever and 

 anew remain an interesting, a fascinating study. 



In commencing now to read my reminiscences I would beg you 

 to kindly and indulgently remember, when I come to the reading of 

 the Journal, that it was written well-nigh thirty years ago. 



It was on the occasion of the Lower Rhenish Musical Festival at 

 Cologne, in May 1874, that I first met Brahms. For weeks before- 

 hand my mind had been occupied by the thought of seeing face to 

 face the great composer, whose name was then on every musician's 

 lips as that of a man whose genius Robert Schumann had publicly 

 proclaimed in the glowing language of an inspired prophet. And I 

 well remember my embarrassment and the sensation it gave me, when 

 at last I was permitted to shake hands with him after the rehearsal 

 of Handel's " Samson," in which oratorio I had been engaged to sing 



