Soon the outlook brightened. To the gratification of my teacher no less than to my own, I now commenced to be engaged for oratorio and concerts, not only in Berlin and the provinces, but also outside of Germany, in Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Russia. To picturesque, musical, aristocratic Holland and its warm-hearted people, among whom in the course of the years I was to find some of the best and truest friends of my life, I felt myself particularly attracted ; a feeling ripening before long into a deep, affectionate attachment.