I attended several of the concerts of the Richard Strauss Festival in 1903 at the St. James's Hall, for which Herr Mengelberg brought over his splendid orchestra from Amsterdam. The public showed comparatively little interest in these fine concerts. At one of them Herr von Possart, the well-known director of the Hoftheater in Munich, who was also a most distinguished actor, appeared and declaimed Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," giving this fine poem in German and from memory, whilst Strauss played the incidental music, which he had composed on the piano. There was, unfortunately, only a very small audience, but it was a most appreciative one, and cheered both artists to the echo. Neither of them was at all well known in England at that period. I paid them both a visit in the artists' room, as I knew them personally. They seemed quite satisfied, and did not mind having performed to an empty hall.