Heinrich [von Herzogenberg's] 'Variations' gave me immense pleasure. The thing came to him in a good hour; the theme is beautiful, finely articulated, prolific, and the variations are, as they should be, independent growths that nevertheless depend on the theme. I can't put it properly but you will know what I mean. A true theme for variations has a paterfamilias character that one recognizes at once, and the children should show heredity and yet each have its own individual physiognomy and value. . . .

We heard Paradise and the Peri once more the other day and I loved it more than ever - also ethically, though the poem moralizes in such an infuriating fashion and is really impossible to enjoy. But even in the poem there are certain moments that transcend the temporal, and the repentant sinner is a figure that always makes me shed uncritical tears. Who can resist the words "There was a time when'"etc.? ... The music is admirable almost throughout, and yesterday the scoring revealed to me a wealth of beauty I never noticed before, so much so that I asked myself: "Is it I who have learned to listen, or has it learned to sound?"