Rubinstein, Anton

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein – Ivan the Terrible, op. 79

Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн
(28 November [O.S. 16 November] 1829, Vykhvatintsy, Podolia, Russia [now in the Transnistria borderland of Moldavia] – 20 November [O.S. 8 November] 1894, Peterhof, Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Musical Character Piece for large orchestra, op. 79
Iwan IV. Der Schreckliche – Musikalisches Characterbild für grosses Orchester, op.79
Иван Грозный [Ivan Grozny]

Composed
1866, 186

Dedicated to
Count Wladimir Solohub

First performances
14 November [O.S. 2 November] 1869, Saint Petersburg, conducted by Balakirev. When Rubinstein returned from a European tour in December 1869, he conducted the work himself in Saint Petersburg

Early Publications
In 1869, Bote & G. Bock (Berlin) published the full score [Plate 8470] and a four-hand piano version by H. Ulrich. Vasily Bessel (Saint Petersburg) published the full score and a four-hand piano version by Tchaikovsky, who was paid 40 rubles to arrange the single movement (which he called an “overture”). His arrangements of Rubinstein’s Ivan (1869) and Don Quixote (1871) are included in volume 60 (1971) of Tchaikovsky’s Complete Collected Works (Полное собрание сочинений, edited by Georgy Kirkor).

Background
Best known as the founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Anton Rubinstein was one of the great nineteenth-century keyboard virtuosos. The summit of his performing career was a series of seven consecutive “Historical Recitals” covering the history of piano music. He presented these throughout Eastern Europe and the United States as a “Steinway artist,” receiving as much as 200 dollars (in gold) per concert, plus all expenses. Each recital could feature as many as eight full piano sonatas, plus encores: they made powerful impressions on fellow pianists from Clara Schumann to the young Sergei Rachmaninoff. The first recital of each series included selections by Byrd, Bull, Couperin, Rameau, Scarlatti, and Bach. In addition to virtuosity and an encyclopedic memory, he was praised for his tone, sensuous style of playing, and stamina: he gave a total of 215 American concerts in 239 days (sometimes as many as three per day), and he invested the proceeds in real estate near Saint Petersburg….

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