“stands far above the former from the aesthetic point of view,” he told Raden,

and even declared himself ready to write a dissertation on the subject. With his
usual feeling for the nobility of art, he defended what he saw as the true values:
“There is no democracy in the arts, for painting will then become only a pho-
tograph, music—only Liedertafel or choral societies, architecture—only an ex-
hibition bazaar, sculpture—little busts of great people, mime (that is, theater)
will become a parody, and dancing will become the cancan.”19
Despite this avowed preference for symphonic music over opera, Rubinstein
had nevertheless entered into detailed discussions with Émile Perrin, the direc-
tor of the Paris Opéra, and the dramatist Jules Vernoy de Saint-Georges con-
cerning the commissioning of an opera for the French stage. Saint-Georges had
provided librettos for Auber, Adam, and Halévy, and had been the coauthor of
the libretto for Bizet’s La Jolie Fille de Perth, premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique
in December the previous year. News of the proposed commission was reported
in Signale für die musikalische Welt and in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, but nego-
tiations dragged on for more than a year and in the end the project was shelved.
Rubinstein had also approached François Hainl, the conductor of the Paris
Opéra and of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, about the possibility
of conducting the concerts of the Paris Conservatory. Like the commission for
the opera, however, this attempt proved equally unsuccessful, and ultimately
Rubinstein was obliged to acknowledge: “In general, I hear so much about so
many things from all quarters that clearly nothing will be realized.”20
Rubinstein’s ¤nal concert at the Salle Herz on 29 April included his Ocean
Symphony and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. His appearances in Paris, as
well as the concerts that he gave in Lille, Brussels, and Mons during April, were
very successful and he had every reason to feel pleased with the reception he
had received: “You have probably found out about my successes here from the
newspapers: they are truly grandiose and afford me very much pleasure,” he told
Kaleriya Khristoforovna.21
After Paris, Rubinstein moved on to London for a series of concerts in May
and June. On Monday 8 June he gave a concert with the Philharmonic Society
that included Handel’s Air and Variations from the Suite in D minor, but he gen-
erally found British audiences unsympathetic: “I like England less and less,” he
reported to Edith von Raden. “I imagine her like a woman full of qualities wor-
thy of respect, but ugly. In general, I could represent, quite to the point, the vari-
ous countries of Europe in the shape of women. If we should meet some time
I shall clarify this, and it will make you laugh.”22 At the end of June Rubinstein,
Vera, and Yakov left London and returned to Paris where they stayed for a few
days before heading for Munich. There Rubinstein planned to hear Wagner’s
new opera, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which had received its premiere at
the Königliches Hof- und Nationaltheater on 21 June under the direction of
Hans von Bülow. The vocal score was already in print and Rubinstein had evi-
dently examined it thoroughly, for he con¤ded to Raden: “In the music there is
something good, but as a whole it affords little pleasure, it seems to me. How-
ever, I consider the text a masterpiece—not as an opera text but, in general, as

Europe and America Concert Tour 129