In the afternoon I went to the production of excerpts from Onegin and Faust in the Small Hall, done to piano accompaniment. The Conservatoire does possess a theatre but it is let, so student productions are corralled into a hastily adapted stage in front of the organ in the Small Hall. Gabel was rubbing his hands with glee: 'What a marvellous little stage we've made of it!' But many of the audience are justifiably incensed by this 'little stage', since it is, to all intents and purposes, a pathetic pile of rubbish.

Tcherepnin asked me long ago if I wanted to conduct the performance with piano, but I thought this would not be very interesting and would not justify the length of time I would have to spend on rehearsals. The conductor's baton was therefore on this occasion passed to Dranishnikov. The show went very well.