Sunday, April 18:
R. slept well; he goes for a walk and says to me, “It is enough for me to know, ‘She is there at home waiting for me,’ then I can also enjoy walking by myself.”
We do some work on the biography. Oh, how sad and wonderful, the stay in Munich! As we talk about the school, R. tells us how shocked he was when Rubinstein played some of the 48 Preludes and Fugues, to see how mannered he has become.
After dictation the Duke of Meiningen and his wife are announced. R. is pleased to see him again and welcomes him very warmly. Over our late breakfast he says the Duke gives the impression of being a direct descendant of Witikind.
Some visitors in the afternoon; R. receives Prince Ouroussoff and embarks with him on a long discussion about the church. The Prince maintained that it was unavoidable for the church to interfere in politics, etc.; R. maintains that, if religion had any influence at all on our lives, our customs would surely be less pretentious.
In the evening our Posilipine friends and, besides them, the Duke and his wife; Herr Rubinstein plays to us his “Picture” from Die Walküre, “Wotan’s Farewell,” and then R. plays the Prelude to Parsifal for the Duke, with explanations. When the Duke says he is curious about the production, R. replies, “I have called my work a stage dedication play; it would be unthinkable in our ordinary theaters, and it is very bold; but, if our sweet secrets can be taken so lightly, I do not see why one should not also deal with them in the noblest way.”
The Duke once more pleases R. with his personality: “He looks like Wotan, like Barbarossa, there is nothing in the least modern about him; he is the only German prince who makes one think of his origin, completely heathen.” The musicians strike up, and R. again does his duet with Pepino.
Before beginning dictation he said to me, “I come to it fresh from Lord Jesus.”