Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 10 May 1914

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The general rehearsal. I decided to put on a bit of a show and dressed in my light-coloured suit, despite the rainy weather. I had worn it at the general rehearsal for the Graduation Concert last year, and it was also raining then. At the start of the reherasal there were not many people in the hall, but it soon filled up. Glazunov arrived and sat with Sokolov. Nikolayev was quite charming to me; we sat together listening to the various composers' compositions.

Tsybin's symphony is as modest and insignificant as its author. Yasensky has skillfully orchestrated some extraordinarily pointless music. Next on were Tcherepnin and myself to play my Concerto. I knew that the whole audience was waiting for this, and just beforehand was gripped by a kind of insecurity - not about my performance, but simply about how to go on stage. I actually played quite well, and the ensemble with the orchestra was very good. Orchestra and audience applauded. I then conducted my less than noteworthy number: Shcherbakov's Procession. Owing to the number of accidentals I had put in the parts the performance of Procession had a number of wrong notes, but there was no time to repeat it as the rehearsal was in any case threatening to go on until nightfall.

excerpt from 'Sergey Prokofiev diaries: 10 May 1914' pp. 676 (215 words)

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