Yet Another Busy Weekend

On Friday afternoon, my business in town concluded, I set out for the Emperor's summer estate in Laxenburg, where the court musicians are invited each year. Although they still have to perform for His Majesty and his guests, the mood is lighter than it is at the Hofburg and there is more free time to spend in the casino and the pleasure gardens. Not being invited this time, I took it upon myself to make my presence known, which resulted in absolutely nothing. I was completely overlooked by the Emperor. Can you imagine?

I returned to Vienna in a foul humor and began to prepare for the in-home musicale I'd scheduled that very evening. I was not disappointed, for the true connoisseurs of good music, that is to say my friends and colleagues, arrived with their various instruments and bottles of wine and we set ourselves to having a better time that the snobs at the palace could have in several summers. Basta!