R. had a wretched night, full of disquieting dreams. – He must reply to Herr Scherbarth, the theatre director. I hold a conversation with our friend Groß; fifty thousand florins will soon be unavoidably necessary—but whence are these to be obtained? Doepler must have money for the costumes, and Brandt and the engineer, and I do not know who else, make their claims as well. In the evening, a visit from the architect Brückwald, Professor Schulz and his wife; the Eighth Symphony is taken in hand, in the father’s beautiful arrangement; at the second theme of the Finale R. exclaims: “There comes Galathea! Then the dolphins and the sea-brood, sporting, clamouring, and quarrelling.” – The close of Parzival leads us to reflect how few truly consummate masterpieces there are, almost only the Beethovenian symphony. R. reads to us the petition of the Herzegovinians [1] to the embassies, and grows heated over the disgrace of this Turkish misrule! He wishes the Russians might obtain possession of Constantinople.
[1] See note on Bocchesen, 21 September; petitions regarding the burdens imposed on them.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins.