Mr. Dressel's reminiscences (Selwyn and Blount, I2S. 6d.) of the
musical life of the last generation will be mainly of interest to those who belong to it. They will share his pleasure at the mere mention of a once-familiar name or place, even though it is just introduced without any particular rele- vance. Others will. finj some of his anecdotes rather tedious—why are the bad manners of celebrities- so assiduously
recorded by their disciples ? Mr. Dressel's most interesting chapters describe the pompous -splendours of Weimar, where he studied the violin in the great days of the Archduke Carl Alexander, his early years in the London which heard Joachim, Sarasate, Destinn and Caruso, and his recollections of the vanished European courts where he performed before the War. Mr. Dressel has not entirely avoided those perennial stories which admirers always appropriate' for their own- particular lion, and sometimes he. indulges in a heavy parlour sentimentality which will irritate members of this generation but will please the generation whose favourite violin work seems to have been the Mendelssohn Concerto.
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