5 Europe and America Concert

Tour, 186773

Rubinsteins departure from the Conservatory was accompanied by a great deal

of speculation. The immediate cause was his disagreement with other members
of the teaching staff about some fundamental points of principle. He wished to
defend music as a pure and noble form of art; many of the other professors
wished to bow to public pressure in admitting more fashionable music as
models for the students to study and play. I have therefore decided, Rubinstein
told his mother, to let these good folks chat and write everything about me
they want, but I am out of it.1 Not surprisingly, critics like Stasov ascribed Ru-
binsteins departure to the inevitable consequences of his despotism: Under
the inuence of that adulation which his supporters and admirers heaped on
him, he began in the end to demand for himself such dictatorial and unlimited
rights as were inappropriate for anyone, and which even his most fervent ad-
mirers could not arrange for him.2 There were, in fact, many loyal supporters
at the Conservatory who were genuinely sorry to see him go. He received, for
example, a tearful three-page letter from Henrietta Nissen-Saloman bewailing
his departure, and there were also letters from several female students, including
Terminskaya, Sokolovskaya and Iretskaya. His chief concern was that the RMS
might suppose that their protestations had been prompted by him, and he asked
his sister Soya, through Kaleriya Khristoforovna, to try and calm any dissent-
ing voices.
Nikolay Rubinstein had been forthright in his criticism of his brother. The
pragmatically minded director of the Moscow Conservatory thought that his
brother should have compromised with his opponents. To the unyielding Anton
this seemed like treachery, and, as usual, it was left to Kaleriya Khristoforovna
to try to reconcile her sons opposing views. Anton would have none of it:

What you write concerning what Nikolay has to say about your attitude toward
the Russian [Music] Society exactly conrms my opinion that he views this whole
affair from the point of view of a man with a great civic duty who puts to one side
the insults caused to me, while my endeavors were able to further the cause of Rus-
sia! This is all very ne in a book called A Description of Great Characters, but I
do not like it, since this points to coldness and even to farce. However, it is super-
cial to speak of this, such is his wont, and si cela peut faire son bonheur, soit le!
[If that makes him happy, then so be it!]. As far as letters are concerned, he owes
me one, not vice versa. I once dragged him out of a stupid and idle life in Mos-
cow, paved the way for his new work, and pointed this out to him; without this he
would have sunk further into the quagmire of his good-for-nothing way of life at