Back home I had another look at the Shaposhnikov and at two o'clock went to rehearse the Graduation Concert, where the orchestra had been set out on the stage of the Great Hall. Rehearsing Shaposhnikov's ballet proved to be extraordinarily difficult, because the inexperienced orchestra had to struggle to work out the dissonances of 'contemporary' music from the pen of a not very talented composer. When that was over I still had to plough through Karnovich's Variations, after which I was completely exhausted.