Now 17, he knew he could no longer pass as a child prodigy. At first he continued his studies with Dehn, then with Adolf Bernhard Marx, while composing in earnest. Rubinstein was left in Berlin while his mother, sister and brother returned to Russia. Word came in the summer of 1846 that Rubinstein’s father was gravely ill. Meyerbeer directed both boys to Siegfried Dehn for work in composition and theory. Mendelssohn, who had heard Rubinstein when he had toured with Villoing, said he needed no further piano study but sent Nikolai to Theodor Kullak for instruction. Here he met with, and was supported by, Felix Mendelssohn and Giacomo Meyerbeer. In spring 1844, Rubinstein, Nikolai, his mother and his sister Luba travelled to Berlin. ![]() Anton was 14 years old Nikolai was eight. They finally returned to Moscow in June 1843.ĭetermined to raise money to further the musical careers of both Anton and his younger brother Nikolai, their mother sent Rubinstein and Villoing on a tour of Russia, following which the brothers were dispatched to St Petersburg to play for Tsar Nicholas I and the Imperial family at the Winter Palace. Liszt advised Villoing to take him to Germany to study composition however, Villoing took Rubinstein on an extended concert tour of Europe and Western Russia. Chopin invited Rubinstein to his studio and played for him. In December 1840, Rubinstein played in the Salle Érard for an audience that included Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. Later that year Rubinstein’s mother sent him, accompanied by Villoing, to Paris where he sought unsuccessfully to enroll at the Paris Conservatoire. Rubinstein and Villoing remained in Paris for a year. Rubinstein made his first public appearance at a charity benefit concert at the age of nine. His mother, a competent musician, began giving him piano lessons at five, until the teacher Alexander Villoing heard and accepted Rubinstein as a non-paying student. My conclusion is that I am neither fish nor fowl / a pitiful individual. Rubinstein’s father opened a pencil factory in Moscow. The classicists think me a futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary. Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. Although he was raised as a Christian, Rubinstein would later become an Christian atheist. Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew. Before he was 5 years old, his paternal grandfather ordered all members of the Rubinstein family to convert from Judaism to Russian Orthodoxy. Rubinstein was born to Jewish parents in the village of Vikhvatinets in the district of Podolsk, Russia (now known as Ofatin?i in Transnistria, Republic of Moldova), on the Dniestr River, about 150 kilometers northwest of Odessa. He also composed a large number of other works, including five piano concertos, six symphonies and a large number of solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble. He wrote 20 operas, the best known of which is The Demon. Although best remembered as a pianist and educator (most notably in the latter as the composition teacher of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky), Rubinstein was also a prolific composer throughout much of his life. ![]() Rubinstein played this series throughout Russia and Eastern Europe and in the United States when he toured there. He became most famous for his series of historical recitals / seven enormous, consecutive concerts covering the history of piano music. As a pianist, Rubinstein ranks amongst the great 19th-century keyboard virtuosos. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein who founded the Moscow Conservatory.
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