Lessons with the children, errands and visits, household inconveniences. I chatted with R. all evening. The sketches for the Ninth Symphony are interesting to the highest degree. He cast aside the immortal Schiller; in his stead Berlioz[1] took up “le divin Shakespeare”; and yet Berlioz was considered more cultivated than Beethoven—only genius, however, protects from follies in art.
[1] Reference to Hector Berlioz’s Symphony with Soloists and Choruses “Roméo et Juliette”, 1839.
Revised English translation by Jo Cousins [© Jo Cousins | WAGNER Salon]