Thursday, April 22:
Rehearsal at 10 o’clock; the orchestra is becoming ever better and more fiery, as always after a certain amount of contact with R.... But he is very tired.
He lies down for a while and I pay some calls, taking care of the distribution of tickets for the dress rehearsal.
In the evening we entertain some friends, among them Frau Wesendonck. Before that R. and I went for a little walk in the Tiergarten, and looked at the curious victory column!!
Recently R. said that the best thing Germany had recently produced was the Prussian army constitution, but he had little sympathy for what this army was now protecting. Herr Tappert tells us the most curious things about the pressure exerted by the School of Music against all who have not been through it; when in a newspaper he, Tappert, recently called Wilhelmj the leading violinist, the editor was attacked by people in the ministry and from all sides, saying that the leading violinist is Joachim! Poor music teachers who do not swear by this god gradually lose all their pupils. In the school itself no note by my father may be played; but if one asks about the accomplishments of the head of this institution, one is told that he plays the violin well! However, he has the Ministry of Culture and the Crown Prince and Princess behind him, and so any sign of independence is at once stifled.