Tuesday, March 30:
So R. has reached a difficult state of deadlock - he can complete neither his company of singers nor his orchestra. I have to attend a ladies’ conference about a carpet for the church. In the afternoon an excursion to the theater, R. much concerned about the delay in the ground clearance; while R. was away exerting himself, nothing was done here! Home in very sad spirits, raised by the children, especially Fidi. “God and his host of angels surround him,” R. says, “Il est bien né.”
Fine reply to R.’s splendid letter from my father. Hans writes to me and sends one hundred pounds for the children. In the evening great tiredness, no reading.
Recently R. sang the entrance of the Commendatore from Don Giovanni and said: “Nothing in our romantic era could be more romantic than isolated passages in this scene. God, what fellows they were, Mozart and Beethoven - music literally raged inside them like a fever!” Of Weber he recently remarked that he was the first composer to make a wind instrument play fortissimo and the rest of the orchestra pianissimo. He laughs heartily at the cello as a solo instrument or with piano accompaniment.