At three o'clock I went to Koussevitzky's rehearsal to hear Myaskovsky's Alastor. Because the Court Hall has been given over to house the wounded, Koussevitzky has to prevent his concerts in the Maly Theatre*, with the orchestra on the stage where the sound is very dull. Forte passages simply disappear; when the flutes play piano or the double-basses pianissimo, they can be heard only by straining the ears. In Alastor, at the best of times a piece with its longueurs, Koussevitzky dragged out the tempi, thereby doing serious damage to the work. Much of it afforded me great pleasure, however, even though as a whole the work is, if I may put it so, lacking in compactness. But its sound-world is wonderful, in places truly remarkable. At the moment I am preoccupied with orchestral timbres and therefore place particular value on this aspect.