Kolechka [Nikolay] Myaskovsky and I have a rendezvous a the Tsaskoye Selo station to go to Pavlovsk, not just for the concert but to have time for a walk beforehand. I must try to meet Zakharov, as I am sure he will be there. Indeed, a Zakharov did join us in the train, but not that one: his brother Vasily, a fine fellow if inclined to be a bit rough in his manners. On arrival at Pavlovsk, Myaskusha and I went for a walk. He writes in Muzyka under the pen name of 'Misanthrope', and his recent overview of the Belyayev Concerts has delivered so blistering a castigation of the management for their failure to honour the founder's wishes in terms of programming works by new composers (including myself), that apparently this same management (Artsybushev, Glazunov and Lyadov) has seriously taken fright and now proposes to enlist the help of Ossovsky and Pogozhev. This is very timely for me: I want them to programme my concertos and am about to start actively working to achieve this end.

Before the concert I went into the artists' room to see Aslanov. He had been impressed by my conducting at the Graduation Concert and now proposes that I conduct Dreams at Pavlovsk myself. Zakharov was not there, but Myashkusha said that he would be seeing him in Terioki tomorrow.

Listened to the Divine Poem. It is wonderful music, but how shapeless the first movement is! Say what you will, but with its inordinate length and absence of any landmarks, the form is diffuse to the point of haziness. The opening of the Finale is magnificent, but why follow those sprightly and attractive pizzicatos with yet more meandering music?

Debussy's Chambre magique sounded good but there's not much music in it. There is more in Stravinsky: his Infernal Dance is simply excellent. Afterwards I strolled around for a while among the numerous, fashionably dressed audience.