of all the branches would be subservient.

This meant that, even though Yelena

Pavlovna remained its president and Prince Dmitry Obolensky its vice presi-
dent, control would pass into the hands of people over whom Rubinstein had
little inuence. In a last-ditch attempt to force the issue, he wrote directly to the
grand duchess on 28 May/9 June, enclosing copies of the revised charters to-
gether with his report The Obligations and Rights of the Director of the Conser-
vatory. Rubinsteins report has never been published in its entirety, but Baren-
boym quotes a part of it:

The director is to choose the professors, appoint the subjects to be taught and the
classes and the periods of study; he is to keep watch over the method and manner
of teaching and the success achieved by the students . . . and he is to arrange every-
thing that he nds necessary for the successful progress of art at the Conservatory.
In all the aforesaid points he is to be guided by a Council of Professors over which
he presides and in which all questions are to be resolved through a majority of
votes. . . . For his entire tenure he is the chief person in charge of the Conserva-
tory; no one has the right to make any arrangement without his knowledge. . . .
At his discretion he may reply or not to public accusations, but in any case he is
obliged to accept full responsibility.96

Rubinstein pointed out to Yelena Pavlovna that the term he had set himself
as director to establish the two institutions (the RMS and the Conservatory)
had almost expired: Now I can say boldly that they have sufcient material
funds and they can blossom and attain their noble aims. He told her that all
this had deected him from his career as a composer, but he was prepared to
make the sacrice if Your Imperial Highness nds that my labors are not with-
out use even now, but on no other terms than those expressed by me in the
charters. 97 If these conditions could not be satised, he told her, he would con-
sider himself relieved of his duties at the Conservatory and the RMS as of
1 January 1866. To issue an ultimatum such as this was indeed a high-risk
strategy. He may have felt that his position as the head of an institution which
had achieved so much in just three years was virtually unassailable, but his de-
mands for greater autonomy ran contrary to the policy of centralization and
bureaucratization that was the hallmark of the tsarist government. The Conser-
vatorys dependence on arbitrary decisions taken by the Ministry of Education
and the Ministry of the Court was a constant source of irritation to Rubin-
stein.98

Marriage to Vera Chekuanova

Shortly after sending his letter to the grand duchess, Rubinstein set
out for Leipzig via Berlin. He stopped in Leipzig just long enough to pen a few
lines to Rodenberg, telling his librettist that he did not want to return to Russia
without the libretto of the Song of Songs in his suitcase.99 He had promised the
opera to a music festival in Kningsberg and must have it cote que cote
[whatever the cost].100 There is nothing in the published documents to prepare

The Founding of the Russian Music Society 113