Anton Rubinstein
Russia, 1839–1894
Russian pianist and composer who founded the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1862, the country's first. He argued for German academic training and taught composition to Tchaikovsky.
MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced Anton Rubinstein and 2 artists Anton Rubinstein influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Anton Rubinstein?
- Felix Mendelssohn — Mendelssohn remained Rubinstein's lifelong idol — he programmed his music constantly, and his own solo piano works echo Mendelssohn throughout.
- Franz Liszt — From watching Liszt play in Paris (1840), the young Rubinstein learned the freedom of arm movement that underpinned his own titanic pianism.
- Frédéric Chopin — Chopin invited the boy Rubinstein to his studio and played for him in Paris; echoes of Chopin run through Rubinstein's own piano writing.
- Robert Schumann — Schumann's Romantic idiom is among the German models woven into Rubinstein's deeply Germanic harmonic language and form.
Which artists did Anton Rubinstein influence?
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — Tchaikovsky was the first composition student of Anton Rubinstein at the new St Petersburg Conservatory (1862–65), learning orchestration and composition under him.
- Sergei Taneyev — Taneyev trained in the Rubinstein conservatory system — the rigorous Germanic craft he then codified as the 'Russian Bach' of counterpoint.