Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; – ) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Life

Born to Jewish parents in Moscow, where his father had just opened a small factory, Rubinstein showed talent at the keyboard early on. He studied piano first with his mother, and while the family was in Berlin between 1844 and 1846, he studied piano with Theodor Kullak and harmony and counterpoint with Siegfried Dehn; during this time both he and his brother Anton attracted the interest and support of Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. When the family returned to Moscow, Nikolai studied with Alexander Villoing, who also toured with him. He studied medicine to avoid army conscription, graduating from Moscow University in 1855. in Paris. He also gave the first performance of Balakirev's piano work Islamey, the work for which he is best known today.

According to Harold C. Schonberg, Anton Rubinstein is reported to have said that "if Nikolai had really worked on it, he could have been the better pianist of the two." One of Nikolai's pupils, Emil von Sauer, wrote a comparison of the two brothers' playing styles in 1895:

<blockquote>It is difficult to say which was the better pianist. In every way as different as the brothers were in personal appearance—the one dark, almost to blackness; the other very fair — so different was their playing. The playing of Nicholas was more like that of Tausig, only warmer and more impulsive. Perhaps Anton Rubinstein was the more inspired player of the two, but he was unequal. Nicholas never varied; his playing both in private and in public was always the same, and he kept up the same standard of excellence.</blockquote>

Students

Nikolai Rubinstein's best-known piano students were Sergei Taneyev, Emil von Sauer and Alexander Siloti. His other notable pupils included Ina Lange, Ernst Jedliczka and Henryk Pachulski.

As a composer

thumb|right|upright|Grave of Nikolai Rubinstein in [[Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.]]

Rubinstein was also a composer of some note, though Garden dismisses his music as "unimportant. When asked why he did not compose more than he did, he replied that his brother Anton "composed enough for three."

Worklist (incomplete)

  • Op. 11 - Two mazurkas
  • Op. 13 - Bolero
  • Op. 14 - Tarentelle in G minor (pub. 1861 for solo piano; pub. 1877 for piano duet; also arranged for 2 pianos)
  • Op. 15 - Polka for piano in E-flat major
  • Op. 16 - Valse in A-flat major (later arranged for 2 pianos)
  • Op. 17 - Scene de Bal (later arranged for 2 pianos)
  • WoO - Two Feuilles d'Album

Notes

References

  • Garden, Edward, ed. Stanley Sadie, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmilian, 2001), 29 vols. .
  • Maes, Francis, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). .
  • Schonberg, Harold C., The Great Pianists (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987, 1963). .
  • Note regarding dedication of Tchaikovsky's 1st Symphony to Rubinstein
  • L.A Philharmonic reference to Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky's String quartet No. 1
  • Article about Rubinstein's role in founding The Moscow State Conservatory