In “Fate,” one of the very first characters introduced is Nikolai Rubinstein.  As a composer and talented musician, Rubinstein was quite well known in his day and through his work was granted the directorship of the Moscow Music Conservatory where the young Tchaikovsky was hired to teach.  (Tchaikovsky’s fame undoubtedly played a part in how history has treated Rubinstein, completely overwhelming the memories and mentions that may have come to him had circumstances been different.)  Nevertheless, Rubinstein was important in the musical circles of his time and held great power over all concert performances in Moscow, inside and outside the conservatory. His opinion of a certain musician could make or break their career.  One sees this very thing at the beginning of the novel, with Rubinstein granting Pyotr ‘s request of having young Sergei Taneyev play the Piano Concerto in concert before the public.

While Nikolai was clearly one of Pyotr’s harshest critics, it’s obvious that this was merely to challenge the composer’s talents.  In reality and in the novel, there’s a mutual respect between these two men; they worked together on operas and orchestral pieces in a partnership that, in hindsight, was very important to Pyotr’s development. And though the shy composer was greatly intimidated by Nikolai, he later discovers him to be one of the most loyal allies he could have.

One last thing before I give away too much… let me remind readers that it was Nikolai who had a close acquaintance with the wealthy Nadezhda von Meck for years. He must get credit for her discovery of Pyotr. It was also Nikolai who recommended then-student Yoself Kotek to von Meck to fill an empty spot in her musical ensemble. Many events that come together later were directly due to Nikolai Rubinstein.

All the best, Adin Dalton

[NOTE: I thought it might be helpful if I posted in-depth information about some of the main characters in “Fate.”  Since these characters are based actual living, breathing people in the 19th-century, scholars do know something about their points of view, attitudes, and general personalities.  I had the honor of tweaking these attributes further in my novel of course, and so it will be my take on them that I write about here.  I will do many of these over the coming weeks, continuing on from the last one which featured Anatoly Tchaikovsky, one of the composer’s younger brothers.]