Wielhorski.5 As most of the newly appointed directors were absent from St.

Pe-
tersburg that fall, Rubinstein asked the missing directors to appoint proxies;
thus, for instance, Vladimir Stasov would represent his brother Dmitry, Carl
Schuberth would stand in for Kologrivov, and so on.
During the period when the RMS was being organized one of Rubinsteins
staunchest allies was Vasily Kologrivov, who had long been active in the musical
circles of St. Petersburg and was a close friend of Dmitry Stasov. Concerts of
chamber music were frequently arranged at his home, and Rubinstein, Karl Al-
brecht, Ieronim Veykman, Aleksandr Drobish, Carl Schuberth, Ivan Zeyfert,
Carl Lewy, and Gustav Kross all lent their enthusiastic support. Kologrivovs
contribution in helping to found the RMS was evidently never given the recog-
nition it deserved, and in his Autobiography Rubinstein was at pains to set the
record straight by giving a glowing account of his seless zeal and dedication.
One of the chief issues the new music society wished to address was the ques-
tion of musical education. At that time, opportunities to train professionally in
Russia were limited. The Theater School had initiated music classes in 1833, and
when Aleksey Lvov took over the directorship of the Imperial Cappella he began
instrumental classes in 1839. The Womens Institutes also offered systematic in-
struction to some degree, and standards were greatly raised after Henselt was
appointed as inspector in 1863;6 but all these were governmental institutions
intended to meet the needs of the bodies to which they were attached. Anyone
not in government service who wished to study music turned to resident foreign
musicians like the Czech-born theorist Josef Gunke, who had settled in St. Pe-
tersburg in 1834.7 All the leading Russian composers of the time had studied
with foreign maestros: Glinka under Charles Mayer, himself a pupil of John
Field; Dargomzhsky with Franz Schoberlechner, a pupil of Hummel; and Ver-
stovsky with Ludwig Maurer. When the rst meeting of RMS directors con-
vened, the committee passed a resolution that music classes would be opened
under the aegis of the RMS. These classes were to begin in the fall of 1860, and
Rubinstein set about attracting suitable teachers. On 5/17 November he wrote
to Siegfried Saloman, suggesting that Saloman and his wife come to St. Peters-
burg. He enticed them with the prospect of earning good money with singing
lessons, and assured them of the support and favor of the grand duchess Yelena
Pavlovna. The couple eventually accepted the offer, and a room in the Mikhay-
lovsky Palace was made available to them.
One of the rst actions of the newly formed RMS was to send out invitations
to Russian composers who wished to have their compositions performed at its
concerts. Dargomzhsky, Lomakin, Prince Odoyevsky, and Carl Schuberth were
called upon to form a committee to examine the scores submitted. There were
to be ten concerts in the season, each with two rehearsals, and the RMS aimed
to achieve balanced programs that would reect the best of the European and
Russian tradition, as well as the music of the new and old schools. It is to Ru-
binsteins credit that he did not allow his own strongly expressed preferences and
prejudices to interfere with this aim. Despite his intolerance toward the music

84 Anton Rubinstein