Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ski had bequeathed to the Conservatory after his death on 26 February/5 March
1866.
In October the concert season began again and performances of Gades sym-
phony [sic] In Scotland,121 a concert overture by Azanchevsky, the overture to
Spohrs opera Der Berggeist, Berliozs overture Le Carnival Romain, and excerpts
from a mass by Liszt were given under Rubinsteins direction. His position was
looking increasingly more isolated. Having provoked the fury of Yelena Pav-
lovna and the court circles, he now alienated himself from the teaching staff of
the Conservatory. At a meeting of the Council of Professors on 21 October/
2 November he came into conict with the majority over their right to choose
the works which their pupils could perform at Conservatory soires and in ex-
aminations. The same day he wrote to the council:
I cannot agree with the opinion of the majority because I consider that the aim of
the Conservatory is to shape the musical tastes of the students, to acquaint them
with the model works of the classical composers, to open up for them the lofty ho-
rizon of musical art, etc. To achieve this aim I consider it impossible to permit any
teacher to give a student works which do not have artistic merit and are based only
on more or less elegant passages and melodies, that is, so-called fashionable music.
Or, at least, to permit a choice of this sort I consider possible only in the classroom
in the form of exercises for the complete development of the mechanism, in the
rarest circumstances, as an exception, but not at Conservatory soires where the
programs must bear witness to the direction and spirit of our institution.122