Henschel is one of the superbly cultivated musical temperaments you find only in Germany and Austria; I have listened to many at work, but have never heard anything to compare with his singing - to his own accompaniment of course - of Brahms, Schubert, Beethoven in fact any and every composer. He would sit down at the rickety old piano in our lodgings, and all the things in musical literature I had ever wanted to hear, not to speak of others I had never even heard of (including his own "first fine careless rapture," Trompeter Lieder) were poured out before me. As some people rejoice in having seen Venice for the first time by moonlight, so I am thankful the Gruppe aus dem Tartarus was first made known to me by Henschel, and in my eyes this dear old friend, whom in after years even my father came to be fond of, was like a god.