one.

But what hasnt come to pass may come to pass, denitely will come to pass,
I am not bothered about this. I am just lacking in patience, but with each day I
acquire more of it.33
During the fall of 1851 Count Dmitry Sheremetyev asked Rubinstein to
compose a Russian Liturgical Concerto for his celebrated choir. This choir,
which consisted of up to eighty singers, was formed to celebrate the Orthodox
liturgy in the counts private church, but the choir also gave annual concerts of
liturgical and secular music. Like the Imperial Cappella, its repertory included
a lot of music from the classical and pre-classical era: Palestrina, Nanini, Carissimi, Lotti, Durante, and Bach, and was greatly admired by visiting artists such
as Liszt, Berlioz, Viardot, and Rubini. Rubinstein indeed composed a work for
Sheremetyevs choir, although there is no known material relating to its performance and the score may have been lost. Two years later Sheremetyev came to
Rubinstein again, requesting him to set some psalms. It is possible that he made
a selection for Sheremetyev to approve, for he wrote to Kaleriya Khristoforovna
on 6/18 May 1853: I am again lled with hope regarding Sheremetyev to whom
I have handed the psalms for his cappella. If he wishes it, something good will
come of this. Despite his optimism, Rubinstein apparently did not work on
any psalm settings. He was rather more fortunate, however, in his settings of
duets to words by Russian poets which probably date from this period. The set
of twelve duets, eventually published as Op. 48 in 1852, demonstrate the composers lyrical gifts to their best advantage.
In December Rubinstein moved into a new apartment on Malaya Morskaya
Street in St. Petersburg. The Italian opera was enjoying enormous success with
performances of Verdis Nabucco and Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro at the St. Petersburg Bolshoy Theater, and an indignant Rubinstein raged against Vieuxtemps for his lack of principle (as Rubinstein saw it) in capitalizing on it. Yesterday, he wrote Kaleriya Khristoforovna, Vieuxtempss concert took place,
earning him ve thousand rubles in silver, all because the entire Italian troupe
took part in it. I nd this completely unworthy of an artist like Vieuxtemps, but
God gave him a wife who would agree to his taking part in a concert of tightrope dancers if she could make a prot out of it.34
The start of 1852 saw Rubinstein anticipating two events: the staging of
Dmitry Donskoy and a concert to be given at the Lichtenthal Hall, which would
feature his latest compositions. It was the most brilliant period of the traditional
winter season, and at a reception given by the Wielhorski brothers he met Mario
and Grisi. At almost midnight he, the Belgian cellist Adrien Franois Servais,
and Vieuxtemps played the Beethoven Trio in B
, Op. 97, to the inexpressible
delight of the assembled guests. It was not without a certain irony that Rubinstein remarked on the effect that this performance had on the listeners, who
were all representatives of the cream of Russian society: It was impossible to
imagine anything comparable. You would have least expected it, since this Trio
is not intended for crowned personages, nor for ladies dressed to kill, nor for
gentlemen wearing stars.35
The concert at Lichtenthal Hall took place on 23 February/6 March 1852. The
Return to Russia and First Opera 33