stein, in their professorial, anti-musical togas, stuff the heads of their pupils with

all manner of abominations and infect them beforehand. The poor students see
before them not people but two motionless pillars covered with some sort of idiotic
scribbling in the form of musical exercises. But Tupinstein is densetherefore he
conscientiously fullls his duty and is horridly dense. Now Zarema is different: hes
a valiant little chap! He cuts out just the right yardstick for art. Raised to the posi-
tion of a doctor of music, hes a cobbler in a college cap, and not such a child as to
base his views and advice on aesthetics and musical logic, oh no! Hes been taught
the rules and inoculates everyone who hopes to master the art with this smallpox
vaccine against free learning. On your knees in the dust before Mendel! Thats
Zarembas motto, and Mendel is Zarembas god, just as Zaremba is his prophet.55

While Kologrivov was trying to win over Balakirev, Rubinstein was far away
in Weimar attending the nal rehearsals of his opera Die Kinder der Haide,
which was nally presented on 8 April. Liszt had quit his old post six months
earlier, and Rubinstein did not count on a great success, for the theater was small
and the musical forces were, in his opinion, only middling. Eagerly awaiting
news from Kologrivov about the preparations for the opening of the Conserva-
tory in September, Rubinstein left Weimar for Berlin, where he purchased some
new clothes and reported to his mother I look like a prince.56 From Berlin,
Rubinstein traveled to Copenhagen at the invitation of Princess Anna of Prussia
and spent about seven weeks there. Although he gave no solo concerts, he agreed
to play in a concert of the Danish Music Society and made the acquaintance of
Niels Gade, whose works later appeared in RMS programs.57 Julius Rodenberg
joined him for part of the time in order to work on the libretto of Feramors, in
which Rubinstein had discovered serious dramatic aws, and together they set
about reworking it.
Despite his intensive work on Feramors, Rubinstein remained constantly in
touch with Kologrivov by post. He advised him that he had received conrma-
tion from the Czech pianist Alexander Dreyschock that the latter would join
the staff of the Conservatory. Villoing, too, was to be appointed one of the pi-
ano teachers, and Rubinstein himself agreed to teach (free of charge) but not
more than one hour a day. Konstantin Lyadov had been approached and Rubin-
stein asked Kologrivov to make it clear to him that his duties as a teacher would
mean teaching music theory: He is a gifted person and a Russian, and this latter
fact we must bear in mind above anything else, Rubinstein told him.58 He
had also written to Mauel Garcia, Giovanni Mario, Tamberlick, Calzolari, and
Francesco Chiaramonte, inviting them to St. Petersburg as singing teachers. He
also wrote to the Italian clarinettist Ernesto Cavallini with whom Rubinstein
had performed in St. Petersburg in the 1850s. Cavallini would eventually accept
a teaching post at the Conservatory and remain in St. Petersburg from 1862
until his return to Milan in 1870.
The Conservatory opened its doors on 8/20 September 1862. In his inaugural
address Rubinstein paid dutiful tribute to the government and to Grand Duch-
ess Yelena Pavlovna. The debt of gratitude, he added, needed to be justied by
actions and by results, and, addressing the assembled pupils of the Conserva-

100 Anton Rubinstein