Excerpt from Musical Reminiscences and Impressions When I sat down to write my reminiscences, I did so with some misgivings as to whether I had materials of sufficient interest at my disposal. I had not, however, written many pages, before I began to live again in the past. Incidents which I had almost forgotten came before me as vividly as if they had occurred but yesterday. I saw, in imagination, the faces and figures of musicians, the lives and doings of whom the younger generations read as matters of musical history. For me, whilst penning my recollections, these musicians of the past were just as present as they were years ago when I was holding converse with them, or when I saw them at the festival or concert in which they were taking part. Some of these celebrities still live in their works, and are thus in a manner present amongst us; but the great singers and the world-famed executants I have written about are, for the most part, but a name to those who have not had the privilege, as I had, of hearing them. The voice of many a celebrated singer of bygone days still rings in my ears, although now for ever mute. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.