After coffee we meet Peteris Vasks for our second and last rehearsal with him. Perhaps he's repented of his critical mood yesterday, or he's recovered from the disorientation of hearing his work for the first time - at any rate, he's now full of thanks and praise, even though we all feel our playing was very much as it was yesterday (although admittedly we're all trying hard to envisage the correct atmosphere). In fact, he's undergone a thorough conversion and is now reduced to wordless gestures of heartfelt pleasure, especially after Richard's cello solo at the start of the slow movement. He makes lots of little changes to things - deleting 'ritardando' markings, inserting little pauses, asking for more pedal on the piano, agreeing that the viola can play an octave down in certain high passages. These are the kind of things one wishes one could discuss with composers of long ago, whose markings we struggle to honour, even though they themselves might give way immediately if asked for a bit of flexibility, just as Vasks does. << less