Went to bed at four and got up at nine, clearly not having had enough sleep. But I had to be at orchestra class in the Conservatoire by ten o'clock to conduct a piece by Yasin, a student who has requested, just as I did five years ago, a 'try-out' of his Monastère mystérieuse, a stupendously pointless piece of music, although stitched together skilfully enough to sound all right. The piece lasts about ten minutes, and Tcherepnin used the remaining time to take the orchestra through Sheherezade. He doesn't give me anything to do - just like old times.