“Paris, April 7th (19th), 1889.
“Modi,—Vassia[137] played to Colonne yesterday evening. After the Chopin Polonaise Colonne was astonished, and said he would engage him next year and do ‘les choses en grand.’ ... Vassia has made a furore.”
To V. Davidov.
“London, 1889.
“ ... The evening before I left Paris I went to Madame Viardot’s. I heard an opera which she composed twenty years ago to a libretto by Tourgeniev.[138] The singers were her two daughters and her pupils, among whom was a Russian, who danced a national dance to the delight of all the spectators. I have seen the celebrated Eiffel Tower quite near. It is very fine.... I very much enjoyed hearing the finest of Berlioz’s works, La Damnation de Faust. I am very fond of this masterpiece, and wish you knew it. Lalo’s opera, Le Roi d’Ys, also pleased me very much. It has been decided that I shall compose an opera to a French book, La Courtisane.[139] I have made acquaintance with a number of the younger French composers;[140] they are all the most rabid Wagnerites. But Wagnerism sits so badly on the French! With them it takes the form of a childishness which they pursue in order to appear earnest.”
To the same.
“London, March 30th (April 11th), 1889.
“ ... Before all else, let me inform you that I have made acquaintance with London fog. Last year I enjoyed the fog daily, but I never dreamt of anything like the one we had to-day. When I went to rehearsal this morning it was rather foggy, as it often is in Petersburg. But when at midday I left St. James’s Hall with Sapellnikov and went into the street, it was actually night—as dark as a moonless, autumn night at home. It made a great impression upon us both. I felt as though I were sitting in a subterranean dungeon. Now at 4 p.m. it is rather lighter, but still gloomy. It is extraordinary that this should happen half-way through April. Even the Londoners are astonished and annoyed.
“Ah, Bob, how glad I shall be to get back to Frolovskoe! I think I shall never leave it again.
“The rehearsal went off very well to-day; the orchestra here is very fine. Sapellnikov has not played yet. To-morrow he will certainly make a sensation among the musicians....”