Today in the rehearsal I was on first. I so harried the orchestra and tortured their brains that by the time Tcherepnin arrived they were hardly in a condition to play at all. We had a full orchestra today. I began with 'The Procession of the Sun', and it seemed not bad, vividly soloured, although I did not completely hear all the sonorities I wanted. I think the flutes were a little too strident at the top of their register. The orchestra no longer laughs during 'Lolli's Pursuit'. I'm not happy with the conjunction of the xylophone and the trumpet. The third movement was very nearly right and I managed to squeeze out really raucous ejaculations from the trombones. The first movement is beginning to make complete sense, too. Much of the piece is turning out marvellously. In the second movement I demanded of the tam-tam and the timpani that they begin at the maximum possible volume, and drove them to such a pitch of fury that the uproar they created caused their neighbour, the second trombone, to turn pale, leap up from his seat and cry out: 'I'm going! . . . I'm going! This banging and crashing is simply insupportable!' All in all, though, the second movement was not quite as good as yesterday. I was satisfied with the rehearsal: today for the first time some things began to work, and Ala has started to emerge from the shadows.