clique and plans to resign; [and] the poor professors are crestfallen, and now you

can see them in the streets wearing sackcloth, with cheap penitential cigars (in-
stead of candles) between their teeth (hands) out of penitence, and their heads
are sprinkled with ash (from these cigars)your heart is heavy when you meet
them.128

One of Rubinsteins last duties as director of the Conservatory was to stage

Glucks Orphe. This was the rst opera staged entirely through the efforts of
the Conservatory students, and the cast included two of Nissen-Salomans best
pupils, Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya and Natalya Iretskaya. The performance took
place at the theater of the Mikhaylovsky Palace on 18/30 May and 21 May/
2 June 1867.129
On 25 May/6 June Rubinstein left Russia, asking Andrey Markovich to take
his place on the board of directors of the RMS. He headed for London, where
he received from Rodenberg the libretto of the oratorio Der Thurm zu Babel.
Between 18 June and 4 July he gave three concerts, joining Vieuxtemps in a per-
formance of his own Violin Sonata, Op. 19, and Lon Jacquard in Chopins
Cello Sonata in G minor. He also gave a performance of Beethovens Piano Con-
certo No. 5, and on 1 July played the solo part in his own Piano Concerto No. 4
at a Philharmonic concert conducted by William Cusins. During his stay he met
Karl Klindworth, asking him (at the behest of Nikolay) to join the staff of the
Moscow Conservatory, but Klindworths debts would not allow him to leave
London for at least one year. On 5 July 1867 Rubinstein left for Paris, where he
remained for about a week. The Universal Exhibition, which had opened in
April, was still drawing enormous crowds of visitors to the Champs-de-Mars.
It was an event intended to show off the nest achievements of the Second Em-
pire and to stimulate trade. Almost all the crowned heads of Europe had visited
the French capital, including Wilhelm Friedrich of Prussia, his consort, Queen
Augusta, and their chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. That summer American pi-
ano manufacturers came away with two out of the four medals awarded for
their category. It was widely considered that the system of construction they had
patented and the technical innovations they had introduced placed their pianos
in the forefront of piano technology. The Steinway Company was particularly
successful in combining technical excellence with effective strategies to market
their products. Engaging Rubinstein for a tour of the United States would be a
prestigious achievement for the company, and it seems more than probable that
Rubinstein entered into tentative negotiations with the Steinway agent during
his stay in Paris. For the time being, however, he made no outright commitment.
From Paris Rubinstein headed for Baden-Baden. He had decided against re-
turning to St. Petersburg and planned a concert tour of Europe, and even a trip
to America. Any boot shine has more standing than I in St. Petersburg, he com-
plained bitterly to Kaleriya Khristoforovna.130 He was only waiting for all the
directors, teachers, and pupils to return to the Conservatory, and then he would
announce his formal resignation.

The Founding of the Russian Music Society 121