English & Literature

Who is Anton Rubinstein from The Great Pianists and what is their importance?

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Anton Rubinstein was a Russian who played and looked like Beethoven with his thick, ugly hands and sloppy dress. He studied in Moscow and made his debut at nine in 1839. He played for Liszt in 1846 to become a pupil but paradoxically his brilliant talent was rejected. Rubenstein's three-hour programs were too long and after fifty he had memory lapses. In 1872, he played an American tour of two hundred concerts for two hundred dollars each that he insisted be paid in gold, but refused a second tour. He helped found the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music in Russia and his brother Nicholas founded the Moscow Conservatory in 1866. Anton's most famous pupil was Josef Hofmann and his last concert was in 1894