I struck what may rank as a half-milestone in my journey; for the first time I heard Brahms. The occasion was a Saturday Popular Concert at which the Liebeslieder Walzer were sung by four persons, three of whom (the Germans) knew the composer personally and afterwards became factors in my life. They were Frauleins Friedlander and Redeker, Mr. Shakespere, and George Henschel. That day I saw the whole Brahms; other bigger and, to use the language of pedants, more important works of his were to kindle fresh fires later on, but his genius possessed me then and there in a flash.