Today is the day of the first rehearsal, so I rose early and went to Pavlovsk, calling for Myaskovsky on the way.

After a boring suite by Kazachenko, rehearsed under the baton of the elderly but pleasant-looking composer, it was time for my Concerto. I advanced gleefully on the piano waiting on the platfrom with its lid open. I adore the concert grand piano, standing so fair and ceremonious on the stage in front of the orchestra! But first, and quite properly, Aslanov wanted to go through the Concerto with the orchestra alone. It sounds good, as I envisaged it, and the orchestra also managed it pretty well without too many wrong notes. Having played through the piece from beginning to end, Aslanov then repeated it with me playing the solo part. The weather was not hot and it was quite cool inside the hall; the piano was damp and my fingers were stiff. Because of the cold the left hand muffed the accompaniment at the beginning. In the middle of the first movement I could barely manage the octaves, and I could hear nothing of what was going on in the orchestra. We left out the cadenza and proceeded straight to the Scherzo. To my surprise and delight, Aslanov asked for a slower tempo, saying it would sound better like that. The violin harmonics in the trio squeal and drag; they should have the piccolo added to them. In the Intermezzo I was very nervous about getting lost in the unnumerable modulations, but went wrong only once, which I found very reassuring. The leaps in the Finale were very fleet, but the second half of the movement was not so good.