"Antoine Rubinstein, of whom no one in Paris had ever heard before, for
this great artist had the coquettish temerity to disdain the assistance
of the press, and no advance notice, none at all, you understand, had
announced his apparition," has written Saint-Saens, "made his appearance
in his concerto in G major, with orchestra, in the lovely Herz concert
room, so novel in construction and so elegant in aspect, of which one
can no more avail himself to-day. Useless to say, there was not a
single paying hearer in the room, but next morning, nevertheless, the
artist was celebrated, and at the second concert there was a prodigious
jam. I was there at the second concert, and at the first notes I was
overthrown and chained to the car of the conqueror.
"Concerts followed one another, and I did not miss a single one. Some
one proposed to present me to the great artist, but in spite of his
youth (he was then twenty-eight), and in spite of his reputation for
urbanity, he awakened in me a horrible timidity; the idea of being near
him, of addressing a word to him, terrified me profoundly. It was only
at his second coming to Paris, a year later, that I dared to brave his
presence. The ice between us two was quickly broken. I acquired his
friendship in deciphering upon his own piano the orchestral score of his
Ocean Symphony. I read very well then, and his symphonic music, written
large and black, was not very difficult to read.
"From this day a lively sympathy united us; the simplicity and evident
sincerity of my admiration touched him. We were together assiduously,
often played together for four hands, subjected to rude tests the piano
which served as our field of battle, without regard to the ears of our
hearers. It was a good time! We made music with passion simply for the
sake of making it, and we never had enough. I was so happy to have
encountered an artist who was wholly an artist, exempt from the
littleness which sometimes makes so bad a barrier around great talent.
He came back every winter, and always enlarged his success and
consolidated our friendship."