My circumstances were gradually improving, thanks to the number of my pupils increasing constantly, so that I was able to move into better quarters, in the Eue d' Amsterdam, where I first began to have a few musical evenings at home, reunions of friends, such as Berlioz, Heller, Ernst, Batta (the accomplished and refined violoncellist), Artot, known as ' le bel Artot,' Delsarte, the marvellous tenor without a voice, and several others. On one evening Artot proposed that we should play the Kreutzer Sonata, and we did so. Now Artot, most elegant violinist and most successful performer though he was, was entirely out of his element in such music, which was so painfully evident that when he had left us rather early, Ernst sprang up and said, ' Come, Halle, let us play the Kreutzer ! ' He played it magnificently, and I have never better understood than on that evening how much depends upon the power of interpretation ; how the want of it can deprive the finest work of its charm and interest. << less