Editing Anton Rubinstein (section)

==Composition==
{{main|List of compositions by Anton Rubinstein}}
[[File:Anton Rubinstein by J Ganz.png|thumb|right|Photo of Rubinstein by J Ganz, Brussels]]
By 1850, Rubinstein had decided that he did not want to be known solely as a pianist, "but as a composer performing his symphonies, concertos, operas, trios, etc."<ref>Letter to Rubinstein's mother, dated 28 December 1850/9 January 1851. As quoted in [[#Taylor|Taylor]], 30.</ref> Rubinstein was a prolific composer, writing no fewer than twenty [[opera]]s (notably ''[[The Demon (opera)|The Demon]]'', written after [[Mikhail Lermontov|Lermontov]]'s Romantic poem, and its successor ''[[The Merchant Kalashnikov (opera)|The Merchant Kalashnikov]]''), five [[piano concertos]], six [[symphony|symphonies]] and many solo piano works along with a substantial output of works for chamber ensemble, two concertos for [[cello concerto|cello]] and one for [[violin concerto|violin]], free-standing orchestral works and [[tone poem]]s (including one entitled ''Don Quixote''). Edward Garden writes in the ''New Grove'',
<blockquote>Rubinstein composed assiduously during all periods of his life. He was able, and willing, to dash off for publication half a dozen songs or an album of piano pieces with all too fluent ease in the knowledge that his reputation would ensure a gratifying financial reward for the effort involved.<ref name="garden21845">{{harvnb|Garden|2001|loc=vol. 21, p. 845}}</ref></blockquote>
Rubinstein and [[Mikhail Glinka]], considered the first important Russian classical composer, had both studied in Berlin with pedagogue Siegfried Dehn. Glinka, as Dehn's student 12 years before Rubinstein, used the opportunity to amass greater reserves of compositional skill that he could use to open up a whole new territory of Russian music. Rubinstein, conversely, chose to exercise his compositional talents within the German styles illustrated in Dehn's teaching. [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn]] were the strongest influences on Rubinstein's music.<ref>[[#Brown|Brown]], 68</ref>

Consequently, Rubinstein's music demonstrates none of the nationalism of [[The Five (composers)|The Five]]. Rubinstein also had a tendency to rush in composing his pieces, resulting in good ideas such as those in his ''Ocean'' Symphony being developed in less-than-exemplary ways. As Paderewski was later to remark, "He had not the necessary concentration of patience for a composer... He was prone to indulge in grandiloquent cliches at moments of climax, preceded by over-lengthy rising sequences which were subsequently imitated by Tchaikovsky in his less-inspired pieces."<ref name="garden21845" /> Nevertheless, Rubinstein's Fourth Piano Concerto <blockquote>greatly influenced Tchaikovsky's piano concertos, especially the first (1874–5), and the superb finale, with its introduction and scintillating principal subject, is the basis of very similar material at the beginning of the finale of Balakirev's Piano Concerto in [[E-flat major]] ... The first movement of Balakirev's concerto had been written, partially under the influence of Rubinstein's Second Concerto, in the 1860s.<ref name="garden21845" /></blockquote>

After Rubinstein's death, his works began to lose popularity, although his piano concerti remained in the repertoire in Europe until the First World War, and his principal works have retained a toehold in the Russian concert repertoire. Perhaps somewhat lacking in individuality, Rubinstein's music was unable to compete either with the established classics or with the new Russian style of Stravinsky and Prokofiev.<ref>[[#Taylor|Taylor]], 238.</ref>

Over recent years, his work has been performed a little more often both in Russia and abroad, and has often met with positive criticism.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} Amongst his better known works are the opera ''The Demon'', his Piano Concerto No. 4, and his Symphony No. 2, known as ''The Ocean''.