Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

RUBINSTEIN, ANTON GRIGOROVICH (1829-1...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 810 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

RUBINSTEIN, ANTON GRIGOROVICH (1829-1894) , See also:Russian pianist, See also:born of Jewish parentage on the 28th of See also:November 1829 at Wechwotynetz, in See also:Podolia, was the son of a See also:pencil manufacturer who migrated to See also:Moscow. The Rubin-See also:stein See also:family, at the dictate of Anton's grandfather See also:Roman Rubinstein, had all been baptized at the See also:time of the ukase against the See also:Jews issued in 1830 by the See also:Tsar See also:Nicholas. Anton was then one See also:year old. Besides his See also:mother he had but one teacher, the piano See also:master See also:Alexander Villoing, of whom he declared at the end of his own career that he had never met a better. In See also:July 1838 Rubinstein appeared in the See also:theatre of the Petrowski See also:Park at Moscow; and in the year following he went to See also:Paris after Villoing, and in 1840 played before See also:Liszt. For some time after this Rubinstein travelled in See also:Holland, See also:Germany and Scandinavia, and reached See also:England in 1842, where on the loth of May he made his first See also:appearance at a Choral Fund See also:concert. In 1845, after a brief visit to Moscow in 1843, he went with his family (including his See also:brother Nikolaus) to See also:Berlin in See also:order to See also:complete his musical See also:education. Dehn was their master, and Mendelssohn, whom Rubinstein had met previously in See also:London, their best friend. The sudden See also:death of Rubinstein's See also:father necessitated the withdrawal of his mother and Nikolaus to Moscow, while Anton, on Dehn's See also:advice, went to See also:Vienna to seek a livelihood. Hence, after more hard study for nearly two years, he went with the flautist Heindl, and later alone, on a concert tour in See also:Hungary; and the outbreak of the revolution in Vienna preventing his return there, he went via Berlin to St See also:Petersburg, where the See also:Grand Duchess Helene appointed him Kammervirtuos. About this time an unfortunate See also:error of the See also:police nearly caused his See also:expatriation to See also:Siberia, from which he was saved by his patroness. During the next eight years Rubinstein spent most of his time in St Petersburg studying, playing and composing.

His See also:

opera Dmitri Donskoi was produced there in 1851, and Toms der Narr in 1853. See also:Die Sibirischen See also:Jager, written about the same time, was not produced. On the advice of his patroness and See also:Count Wilhorski he visited See also:Hamburg and See also:Leipzig, and arrived for the second time in London in 1857, when at a Philharmonic concert he introduced his own See also:concerto in G. In the following year he was in London again, having in the meantime been appointed Concert Director of the Royal Russian Musical Society. In 1862, in collaboration with Carl Schuberth, he founded the St Petersburg Conservatorium, of which he was director until 1867. In 1868 he travelled in Germany, See also:France and England, and remained for some time in Vienna, where he introduced a large number of his own compositions. Thence he went to See also:America in 1872 and 1873, when he returned to See also:Russia, and after a See also:short See also:rest set off once more on concert See also:tours. In this manner the rest of his See also:life was spent, until in 1885 he began a See also:series of See also:historical recitals of immense See also:interest, which he gave in most of the See also:chief See also:European capitals. He died on the 20th of November 1894. In addition to the See also:works already named, Rubinstein See also:left compositions in almost every known See also:form. Among other of his operas are Die Kinder der Haide, Feramors (Lalla Roukh), See also:Nero, Der See also:Damon and Die Makkabaer, this last perhaps more frequently played than all the others, of which the chief defect is their lack of dramatic point. On the subject of See also:oratorio Rubinstein held See also:original views, though his See also:attempt to realize them in See also:Moses and Christus was not completely successful, while his efforts in Berlin and London to found a Sacred Theatre failed entirely.

Nevertheless he himself regarded the Christus as his greatest achievement. The most See also:

familiar of his five symphonies are the " Ocean " and the " Dramatic." He wrote scores on scores of See also:pianoforte works, from complex concertos to the most See also:commonplace salonstucke; abundance of concerted chamber-See also:music, and a number of songs and duets. which enjoyed some popularity. He also published several books, including his Reminiscences and Die geistliche Oper. Rubinstein's fame as one of the greatest of pianists will live in See also:history. His technique See also:bore comparison with that of Liszt; he possessed a See also:power for interpreting the most different kinds of music which has not been surpassed. His brother NIKOLAUS (1835–1881) was also a remarkable pianist, and a marvellous teacher of music. He founded the conservatorium of music at Moscow. See Bernhard See also:Vogel, Anton Rubinstein, Biographischer Abriss (Leipzig, 1888) ; Alexander MacArthur, Anton Rubinstein, a See also:Biographical See also:Sketch (See also:Edinburgh, 1889) ; Eugen Zabel, Anton Rubin-stein, Ein Kiinsilerleben (Leipzig, 1892) ; Anton von Halten, Anton Rubinstein (See also:Utrecht, 1886) ; See also:Cuthbert H. Cronk, The Works of Anton Rubinstein (London, 1900).

End of Article: RUBINSTEIN, ANTON GRIGOROVICH (1829-1894)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
RUBIDIUM [symbol Rb, atomic weight 85.45 (0=16)] 		[next]
RUBLE

Site © 2006 - Net Industries