Saturday, April 29:
The rumors of war seem to be attributable to the need of the owners of the Tagblatt (Vienna) for a recession. Herr Jauner remains silent. R. holds his third rehearsal with Herr Unger and is satisfied with him.
In the afternoon, a walk with R. In the evening he reads me a report from America, which says that Hans has been playing there with unparalleled mastery, but his personal attitude has alienated the public, and attendance has been only moderate.
This evening and the early part of the night I spent in tears and grief, with supplications to God.
We also accompany our splendid Don Quixote to the grave and take leave of him. A work like this cannot be analyzed, only experienced, like a tragedy.
Herr Fiege sends us a postcard reporting the great success of the sixth performance of Tristan - no other work of R.'s has so pleased the Berlin public, he says - which I ascribe to the fact that R. himself supervised the production. A comical letter from Herr Krolop, remarking that if only the role of Sieglinde had been assigned three months earlier!... I cry to you, dear God, from the abyss! I am answered by the sad tune, and the whole of life stretches emptily before me, like the sea before poor Tristan.
We are very interested in and absorbed by Beethoven's sketches; very curious, the way in which he searched for what he heard inwardly, and at last laboriously rediscovered it. What led him on? Nothing conscious, an instinct.