Sunday, September 3:
R. is very tired. A letter from Herr von Bürkel sets our minds completely at rest. Another, from Dr. Dorda (tutor for Fidi), leads to a discussion, but R. decides against him on account of his bloated, Bohemian nature. We drive to the Fantaisie after having had lunch with our three friends Levi, Jouk., and Stein. There we experience a wonderful golden light, due no doubt to the dampness impregnating the air.
At supper we are much reduced, Daniela being on a visit and our good Siegfried having left today for Dresden to see the dentist; for my admonitions to the latter I have been compared with Polonius! Before our drive I spent a happy time in the summer house with R. We were pleased by the house, the garden, the stillness, and the walk afterward also gave him great pleasure.
In the evening our conversation turned to Bach, the Passion; when I observed that it is out of place in a church, R. agrees with me. A musical journal ascribes the Amen of the Dresden Mass, used in Parsifal, to the conductor Naumann, but R. and I feel it is much older.