Shaposhnikov played through the Introduction and Dance from his ballet which bored me to tears. It is very modern, cheap, intricate stuff without a trace of music. It's not difficult to conduct, but there will be a lot of work involved in learning the score, which is very floridly presented and about a square arshin in size*. After this Karnovich played his Variations. This music is not at all modern in style, well crafted without being particularly talented, witty in places and on the whole, it must be admitted, very nice. Four of the ten variations were cut, and the composer will bring those that are to be played to me on Saturday evening. The first rehearsal is on Sunday, no less. Altogether I have a ton of work for this Graduation Concert.