Cosima's Diaries

Diary Entry of March 31, 1879

Overview

Despite a restless night, R. keeps to his work and later the household turns inward toward art and music. The narrator shows the children photographs of the Sistine Chapel, and the evening ends with a mixture of literary restraint and deep pleasure in Bach and Haydn.

Content

Monday, March 31:

R. was somewhat restless during the night, but he works and goes for a walk in the garden before lunch. I occupy myself with the Sistine Chapel, showing the children the lovely photographs of it. R. casts a glance over it and says I am right to admire it.

In the evening we finish the necklace story, though R. does not permit me to finish reading C.’s speech at the end, finding it distasteful. We conclude the evening with Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and the Adagio from Haydn’s C Major Symphony, which strikes us as quite divine.