Anton Rubinstein was born in Viakhvatinetz, Russia, on November 28,
1829. He studied the piano with Alexandre Villoing after which, in 1839
he came to Paris with his teacher, deeply impressing Chopin and Liszt
with his performances. Between 1841 and 1843 Rubinstein made a concert
tour of Europe, but his career as a world-famous virtuoso did not begin
until 1854 when his formidable technique and musicianship aroused the
enthusiasm of Western Europe. After that he made many tours of the
world, his reputation as pianist second only to that of Liszt; his first
American appearance took place in 1872-1873 when he gave more than two
hundred concerts. He also distinguished himself as conductor of the
Russian Musical Society, and as director of the St. Petersburg
Conservatory which he helped found in 1862. He was one of the most
highly honored musicians in Russia of his generation. He resigned his
post as director of the Conservatory in 1891, and on November 20, 1894
he died in St. Petersburg.
Rubinstein was an extraordinarily prolific composer, his works including
many operas, symphonies, concertos, overtures, tone poems, chamber music
together with a library of music for solo piano. About all that has
survived from his larger works is his Fourth Piano Concerto which is
flooded with Romantic ardor and is often in the recognizable style of
Mendelssohn. Beyond this concerto, only a few of his smaller pieces for
piano are still heard, so delightful in their melodic content and so
charming in mood and atmosphere that they have lost little of their
universal appeal.
_Kamenoi-Ostrow_, though best known as a composition for orchestra,
originated as a piece for the piano. Actually the name _Kamenoi-Ostrow_
belongs to a suite of twenty-four compositions for solo piano, op. 10.
But the twenty-second number has become so popular independent of the
suite, and in so many different guises, that its original title (“_Rêve
angelique_”) has virtually been forgotten and it is almost always
referred to now by the name of its suite. Kamenoi-Ostrow is a Russian
town in which the Grand Duchess Helena maintained a summer palace.
Rubinstein was its chamber virtuoso from 1848 on for a few years, and
while there he wrote his piano suite, naming it after the Grand Duchess’
residence. The solemn melody and its equally affecting countermelody
have an almost religious character, emphasized in orchestral
transcription by a background of tolling bells. Victor Herbert made an
effective orchestral adaptation.
The _Melody in F_ is one of the most popular piano pieces ever written.
It is found in the first of _Two Melodies_, for solo piano, op. 3, but
is most often heard in orchestral transcription, or adaptations for solo
instrument and piano. The vernal freshness of its spontaneous lyricism
has made it particularly appropriate describing Springtime; indeed,
verses about Spring have been written for this melody.
The _Romance in E-flat major_ is almost as well known as the _Melody in
F_. This sentimental melody—filled with Russian pathos, yearning and
dark brooding—is the first number in a set of six pieces for solo piano
collectively entitled _Soirées de St. Petersbourg_, op. 44.