the hall of the Imperial Cappella each year.

During the period when Aleksey

Fyodorovich Lvov was the principal conductor, the repertory was fairly conservative and included standard works by Beethoven, Mozart, and Mendelssohn,
and also choral works including Lvovs own Stabat Mater. From 1856 the orchestral concerts were also organized under the direction of Ludwig Wilhelm
Maurer. Tickets to these concerts were costly, and the orchestra was partially
made up of aristocratic amateurs whom Rubinstein later criticized severely.

Dmitry Donskoy
Like Glinka before him, Rubinstein had returned to Russia with the idea
of composing an opera on a national theme. During the winter of 1848 Rubinstein was introduced to the writer Count Vladimir Sollogub, who had provided
the libretto for Aleksey Lvovs opera Undina, which premiered at the St. Petersburg Bolshoy Theater in September of that year. Fourteen years earlier, in 1834,
Sollogub had also had a hand in writing the patchwork libretto for Glinkas A
Life for the Tsar, and he now agreed to adapt Dmitry Ozerovs tragedy, Dmitry
Donskoy, as an operatic libretto for Rubinstein. Sollogub worked quickly, for
when Rubinstein arrived in Moscow from St. Petersburg in April 1849 the libretto of Dmitry Donskoy was already nished. Much of the opera was most
likely composed during the summer months, as Rubinstein was eager to present
the overture during the new concert season.
Early in 1850 he returned to St. Petersburg and on 8/20 January made his
dbut as a conductor, presenting his own First Symphony in F major and the
overture to Dmitry Donskoy at a University Concert. Rubinstein had decided
that Sollogubs libretto for the new opera was too short and, accordingly, asked
Vladimir Zotov to provide a Tartar scene, which became act 2 of the opera. Just
a few years later Zotov was to become editor of the revamped weekly journal
Illyustratsiya, but he was already the author of many plays and novels. Rubinstein was evidently pressuring Zotov, for he wrote to him twice in February
1850, excusing himself for his persistence but also justifying it, pointing out his
impatience to continue with the work in which so much has been done already;
only your assistance is needed to nish it.12 The concert season was by then in
full swing, and Rubinstein did not miss the opportunity to appear before the
St. Petersburg public with his latest compositions. Prince Vladimir Odoyevsky
had organized two charity concerts which proved to be one of the highlights of
the season. The concerts consisted exclusively of works by Russian composers,
and in the rst of them, on 15/27 March, Karl Albrecht conducted the rst performances of Glinkas Kamarinskaya and the two Spanish overtures, the rst
performance of the overture to Dargomzhskys opera-ballet Torzhestvo Vakhka
[The triumph of Bacchus], excerpts from Mikhail Wielhorskis opera Tsganye
[The gypsies] and the overture to Rubinsteins Dmitry Donskoy.13 A few days
later, on 21 March/2 April, Rubinstein played the rst movement of his new
Piano Concerto in E minor, his Fantaziya na dve russkiye narodnye pesni [Fantasy on two Russian folk songs] and the Symphony No. 1 at the St. Petersburg
Return to Russia and First Opera 27