person
Anton Rubinstein
Rubinstein
also: Рубинштейн
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), celebrated Russian pianist and composer who founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory; invoked as a name-dropped credential.
Reading notes
- To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 February 1886. Moscow. §9 there are only two Antons: myself and Rubinstein
A mock-grandiose joke: Chekhov pairs himself with the celebrated pianist-composer Anton Rubinstein, founder of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, as the only two men worthy of the name "Anton" -- comic outrage at his brother naming a newborn after him.
- Modern Prayers §2 Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), the celebrated Russian pianist and composer who founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory; name-dropped as a credential by the petitioner.
- At the Almshouse for the Incurable and the Aged §64 Rubinstein or Beethoven
Named together as the era's shorthand for musical genius, so that even they, in grandfather's telling, could not outplay his own enslaved Jewish serf-musician -- the boast's grotesqueness is the point.