and Rubinstein refer in their correspondence as Madame S.

From Biebrich and

elsewhere Rubinstein penned letters to Liszt which are not only an important
source of information about his activities up to the middle of 1855 but are remarkable on another account. The style is quite unlike anything we nd in Rubinsteins letters to other correspondents. In the rened language of the letters,
so full of metaphor, keen observation, and linguistic dexterity, we can see his
evident attempt to emulate Liszts distinctive epistolary manner.15 Rubinstein
spent almost the entire summer in Biebrich, but a few days before his departure
he appeared before the grand duchess Mariya Pavlovna: She is an excellent pianist, a pupil of Hummel and Liszt, Rubinstein told his mother, and besides,
she has fty years of experience. It was difcult but it came off well.16 The
dowager duchess Mariya Pavlovna had arrived in Weimar in 1804, and, principally to please her, Liszt marked the occasion by staging an opera by a Russian
compatriot.
There can be little doubt that Rubinstein found the company of Liszt and his
entourage immensely stimulating, but it was something he could tolerate only
in small doses. By moving to Biebrich he was able to distance himself from the
heady intellectualism of the Weimar circle. I have been in Biebrich now for
some time, but I am not very happy with myself as regards work: it is barely
making any progress because of the proximity of Wiesbaden, Mainz, and other
attractive towns. All I am gaining by this is that I shall no longer be a composer
of quantity, he remarked to Liszt, taking to heart the accusation that he had
not been sufciently self-critical in his writing.17 He found the company of
Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein especially taxing:
She was a Pole, the most fervent Catholic there ever was. She was not only a blue
stocking but also a stocking of I do not know what hue. She was educated in the
extreme, to the point of nausea. Conversation with her was a trial, but she was also
a very intelligent woman. She was not beautiful, but she had an enormous inuence on Liszt. It was she who discouraged him from virtuosity so that he could
make himself known in another sphere: with his musical compositions and his
protection of others. He thought up Wagner. The Wagner question and the
music of the futureall this came about from the Weimar period, from Liszt
and Madame Wittgenstein.18

Rubinsteins relations with Liszt himself were highly ambiguous. In the early
days of his concert tours, he had delighted audiences by mimicking Liszts style
of playing, moving his body about and sweeping back his hair. There is no doubt
that he was hugely inuenced by Liszt, above all by his immense artistry, his
rejection of everything banal, and the high opinion he had of his art and of
himself. From the rst moment he had heard Liszt play in Paris in 1841, he had
consciously followed his example in his own career as a performer. In 1839 Liszt
had given concerts in aid of ood victims in Hungary and lent his support to
the formation of a professional conservatory in Pest. These acts of charity and
public generosity rekindled Rubinsteins own sense of civic responsibility after
his plan for a Music Academy failed. The rst result of this inuence came a
50 Anton Rubinstein