It was in the year 1868 that I first became acquainted with Anton Rubinstein at the chambers of my friend Hofkapellmeister Joseph Hellmesberger, on the topmost floor of a cruelly lofty house in the Tuchlauben, nearly opposite the Conservatorium of those days...I was exceptionally lucky in hearing the gifted Moldavian play almost daily for several weeks in succession, in private as well as in public...Rubinstein's orchestral effects and variety of tone production on my favourite instrument, therefore, surprised no less than they delighted me. During his sojourn in Vienna he played — more particularly at the houses of his musical friends, where I most frequently met him — music of every period and description; a great deal of his own, more freely, but less carefully, than that of others... he excelled nearly every other pianist of the day.