renowned musicians of the day.

Among them were the sisters Amalie Nerudov,

the pianist, and Wilma Nerudov, the violinist, who, since their rst appearance together in Prague in 1847, had made a triumphant tour of Germany with
their father, Josef Neruda, visiting Leipzig, Berlin, Breslau, and Hamburg. Then
there were the brothers Henryk and Josef Wieniawski and the singer Augusta
Miller: Augusta Miller is here from Berlin, but she suffered a terrible asco. The
Neruda sisters and Schulhoff are creating a furor, Rubinstein told his mother.26
He was especially impressed by the Czech pianist and composer Julius Schulhoff, whose popularity with the St. Petersburg public, however, still failed to
overshadow Rubinsteins own concert. The season was indeed particularly brilliant and concerts were being given all over the city: at the St. Petersburg Passage, the Aleksandrov Theater, the Bernardaki Concert Hall, the Hall of the
Nobility, the Mikhaylovsky Theater, and the St. Petersburg Bolshoy Theater. Rubinsteins only appearance that season was at the Bernardaki Hall when he
presented his Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 25, and the Piano Trio in F major, Op. 15, No. 1, on 12/24 March 1851. The hall, intended for three hundred
people, was lled to capacity, although a hundred tickets had been distributed
free of charge. Still, he was satised with the nancial gain from this concert,
as he still had 128 rubles in silver in hand even after covering his costs. In spite
of this, he decided against a second concert because of the inundation of concerts in the capital.
Meanwhile, the score of the Dmitry Donskoy had been with the censor for
more than a month and no decision had yet been made about its fate. Rubinstein
had grown almost indifferent to it. Only on 14/26 March was he nally able to
report to his mother:
The censor has passed it; the score is with the Directorate, which must rst of all
look through it and decide how much the staging will cost, what must be acquired,
to whom the roles should be entrusted. After that, I will be given a denite answer
whether it will be acceptedand that will take two weeks.27

The preparation of the sets and copying of the orchestral parts proceeded, even
though another month was to pass before Rubinstein was ofcially notied that
the opera was to be staged. Finally on 16/28 April he informed his mother:
The opera will be copied and the parts distributed for learning, so that in September she will be out of dry dock. However good this news may sound, it only half
gives me any joy, as now it will be essential to stay here for the summer. Rehearsals
begin in August, so learning the parts has to be completed by then. Since various
things can crop up in these circumstancesthat is, one place has to be changed,
another taken out entirely, and something new composedI shall have to take
charge of all this myself.28

Rubinstein was fortunate in the choice of artists, for some of the foremost Russian singers of the day were engaged to perform in the opera. The cast list has
survived and has been recorded by Findeyzen:
Return to Russia and First Opera 31