Returning home I wrote my diary and at three o'clock went to Myaskushka* to see him and to get back my score of Dreams. He was very annoyed with me, complaining that I should have been to see him long before this, but had disappeared. And he had some justification, for he had made a transcription of Dreams for piano four hands, as well as completing Alastor in full score and piano reduction. We played Alastor in the duet version. I liked it very much indeed, more than any of his other things. It has a clearer construction and is more distinctive and beautiful than his previous compositions. I am very happy that such a serious and interesting work is dedicated to me. One noteworthy feature is that whereas the opening theme of Alastor does not appear to bear any relationship to the opening theme of my G minor Concerto, a correspondence between the two themes emerges during the development.

His transcription of Dreams is meticulous, perhaps too much so, as there are places where the texture needs to be lightened. It was interesting to play one's own work in a new arrangement and in a completely new sound world.