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A musician by nature, since the day when, as a baby of three, he was so enchanted by an Italian organ-grinder in the Champs-Elysees, that his nurse was hard put to it to get him home, M. Vladimir Cernikoff has ranged the world, filling its ear with melodies, and banishing its boredom with his smile. The music can only be taken as heard in his written reminiscences (Arthur Barker, 12s. 6d.), but the smile plays over every programme, and vivifies every story. For M. Cernikoff is blessed with the inestimable gift of being able to laugh at himself, no less than with his friends, among whom he has numbered a vast collection of " notabilities " in every Inc of life, but especially, of course, amid the galaxy of concert-platform and stage. Sarah Bernhardt, Sir Thomas Beecham, Busoni, Charles Hawtrey (of whom he gives a particularly attractive account), Paderewski, Madame Gerster, Eleanore Dose, the stars and clowns of the Nouveau Cirque, all the motley company of the greenroom, rubs shoulders with the last of the German Emperors, with diplomats, politicians, artists and bons viveurs. Nor is the serious side of his professional art forgotten. There are many passages of musical criticism which will attract the expert, throwing an illuminating searchlight upon his own distinguished interpretations. Alto- gether this is a book of versatile charm, the natural expression of an engaging personality.
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