Rubinstein, Anton

Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein – Suite pour Orchestre, op. 119

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

Suite for Orchestra [in E-flat], op. 119

Prélude – 5 minutes, p. 3
Elegie – 11 minutes, p. 14
Capriccio – 5 minutes, p. 26
Intermezzo – 6 minutes, p. 44
Scherzo – 6 minutes. p. 52
Finale – 11 minutes, p. 68

Composed: 1893-94
Dedication: Russian Music Society (Русское музыкальное общество)
founded in 1859 by the composer and Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1807-1873)
Publication: Leipzig: Bartolf Senff, 1895, plate 2352-2355.
Orchestration: 2 flutes (piccolo in V.), 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons,
2 trumpets (I. E-flat; II. G; III. B-flat; V. C; VI. E-flat), 4 horns in F,
2 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone, 1 tuba (VI. only), timpani, strings

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 Baroque music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 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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