Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of January 17, 1872

Overview

We discussed how the Ninth Symphony might be performed in Bayreuth, and R. described one recurring theme as if it were a stormy witches’ cauldron. He worked through the day and finally completed the preface to his fifth and sixth collected volumes. A walk in the beautiful weather lifted the mood, and the evening closed with more Schopenhauer and the gift of the second volume of the Renaissance.

Content

Wednesday, January 17:

We discuss the performance of the Ninth in Bayreuth and how to organize it. When we talk of the Symphony itself, R. says, “When the theme in fifths recurs in the middle of the first movement, it always strikes me as a sort of Macbethian witches’ cauldron in which disasters are being brewed - it does literally seethe.”

Richard works, I give lessons and ink in. In the afternoon we go for a walk together in the loveliest weather. R. finishes the preface to his fifth and sixth volumes in the evening.

Later we read Schopenhauer again. In the morning R. brings me the second volume of the Renaissance.