Wednesday, December 29:
R. sleeps well, and since he is expecting a rehearsal with Jäger and Seidl, he settles down to read — now Gobineau's Nouvelles asiatiques. The rehearsal falls through, and at one o'clock we go strolling in the palace gardens in springlike weather. Seidl is with us, which leads our conversation primarily to the Berlin venture. At lunch some more Batz affairs.
We discuss what we intend to do on January 1, so that we may continue doing it throughout the year. "Work," says somebody. "Pray," say I, and R.: "Take steps to ensure earning the maximum amount of money with the minimum of effort."
Much about Russia, arising from the Nouvelles asiatiques. The wretched state of Ireland is also discussed, and the American desire to come to its aid. R. expresses his great antipathy for English rule there. We go for a walk in the palace gardens, and R. has the idea of surprising Seidl at a rehearsal he is good-naturedly holding for the amateur concert.
After the concert in the evening, R. reproaches him for having done it, saying: "When one is under an obligation, as you are to Gross, one should discharge it in a homophonous way, but not with one's soul. Mount guard in front of Gross's bank, but do not conduct a concert. If Rothschild offered me a million to set a poem to music for him, do you think I would do it?" He tells him that he went to the rehearsal in order to surprise him, take the baton from him, and beat time in such a way that they came to grief — but unfortunately, he says, the rehearsal was already over.
While the children are at the concert, R. and I talk about his new article in the Bayreuther Blätter. Then a glance at the pictures leads to a discussion about Lenbach. R. once again says that he really cannot bear him — in his type of person there is something ungenuine, like those fabricated cones on mountain slopes.
He tells me that 105,000 marks have been subscribed in Germany for Mommsen to replace his burned-out library. R. thinks it is the Jews, which is why Mommsen is now intervening on their behalf, but the Crown Prince heads the list. Krupp, however, has refused to sign, on account of the Israelites.
The children return, and there is talk of Meiningen, which on every occasion leads R. to express his great vexation and deep disgust.