He will be a heavy encumbrance upon your genius.

115 This put an end to Ru-

binsteins work on The Oprichnik. As the concert season in St. Petersburg was
about to resume, Rubinstein was unable to attend the rst performance of Die
Kinder der Haide at the Bolshoy Theater in Moscow on 10/22 February. The
opera received four performances but was not heard again in Russia until 1903,
when it was revived by Savva Mamontovs private opera company at the Her-
mitage Theater. Reviewing this later production, the critic Yury Engel acknowl-
edged perceptively: There is a lot of the old-fashioned in it, especially in the
role of Wania . . . and as if conforming to this, the composer interpreted it, from
the musical point of view, in an outdated Alyabyev-Varlamov style. Engel also
observed that the opera contains real Gypsy themes, one of which was used
for Isbranas song at Wanias wedding: The tragic end of this song, with its un-
expected melodic turn, can serve as an example of those ashes of talent that
are not uncommon in Rubinstein . . . and by its freshness and strength so often
adorns the vapidity of the music surrounding it.116
During the Lent season Rubinstein conducted performances of Raff s First
Symphony and a symphony by Gade. He was also engaged to take part in the
popular concert given by Kologrivov each spring at the Mange. On 1/13 May
Lomakin, Konstantin Lyadov, and Rubinstein conducted a program that in-
cluded works by Glinka, Dargomzhsky, Balakirev, Serov, Lomakin, Tchaikov-
sky, and the rst performance of Rubinsteins cantata Utro [Morning], to a text
by Yakov Polonsky.117 Rubinstein had agreed to conduct Tchaikovskys Over-
ture in F major118 but when the latter submitted his First Symphony to his old
teachers in the fall, both Rubinstein and Zaremba were highly critical. After
Tchaikovsky had revised it, Nikolay Rubinstein conducted the Scherzo from the
symphony at an RMS concert on 10/22 December 1866, and Anton conducted
the Andante and Scherzo in St. Petersburg at an RMS concert on 11/23 February
1867. Antons refusal to conduct the entire symphony infuriated Tchaikovsky,
for he wrote to his brother Anatoly: The attitude of those villains [Rubinstein
and Zaremba] toward me is too cavalier; I should spit on them and let them see
that I have my self-respect.119
Rubinsteins relations with conservative elements in the RMS had by this
time taken a decided turn for the worse, and in May 1866 it became clear that
his departure from the Conservatory could not be long delayed. He had written
in a deant mood to Senator Andrey Markovich: Yesterday I was in Pavlovsk
and found out that you have asked the grand duchess, through General Kepen,
not to sign the conrmation for the inspector I have appointed for the Conser-
vatory. I acknowledge the formalities of conrming my orders concerning the
Conservatory, but I do not acknowledge the formalities of non-conrmation. I
suggest the following way out of the situationeither I leave, or you go, or the
inspector I have appointed will take his place before 1 June.120 This ultimatum
was the last straw for the grand duchess and her acolytes in the RMS.
In June the Conservatory moved from Demidov pereulok to Zagorodny
Prospekt and Rubinstein was involved in transferring to the new premises the

The Founding of the Russian Music Society 117