Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of May 31, 1873

Overview

The day mixes ordinary family life with lingering reflection on the oratorio and its reception. Children, visitors, and letters occupy the domestic sphere, while the household remains cool enough to require attention to heat. There are also signs of broader concern, from the unfinished gate approval to anxious notes about illness and criticism. The entry conveys a household returning to routine while still carrying recent impressions.

Content

Saturday, May 31:

Good night, Ritter for lunch; before that, the children, to whom there is much to tell. R. talks nicely about the oratorio and its performance. Departure of Franziska, who is returning to her children, while Sascha remains with us. I write to my father, telling him our feelings about Christus in detail, but I do not know if he will understand them properly.

Sunday, June 1: Whitsunday. But cold weather, we are still having to heat the house. The children go to church. R. writes to the King (the gate has been approved!). Family lunch with Sascha, discussion about the string quartet for the evening. R. wants to do the last fugue, which nobody knows at all yet. Looking through the quartets, he exclaims, “Yes, this fellow rescued us all, for Mozart died too early, heralding more than he knew.” Young Kummer will play the first violin.

Note to Herr v. Gersdorff, who has told me about a serious eye complaint affecting our friend Nietzsche, and to Richter, who was accused by my father’s young Hungarian friends of allowing himself to be used against my father.