A special event honoring the memory and the 25th anniversary of the
death of pianist Arthur Rubinstein (22 December, 1982) will be held
in London on January 22, 2008. Lady Annabelle Weidenfeld, who had
been Rubinstein's secretary in his later years, is organizing this
event and recently shared some preliminary information in the "Homage
to Arthur Rubinstein" Yahoo!Group:

Dear friends:
I am finally in a position to give you details about the evening I am
organising at the Dukes Hall of the Royal Academy of Music,
Marylebone Road, London W. 1. Remembering Rubinstein, twenty-five
years after his death. I am hoping that some of you live near enough
to join us for the evening although I get the impression, from the
time that Emails arrive, that most of you are the wrong side of the
pond.

The evening will start with video â€" a beautiful tribute, which we
just filmed specially for the occasion by Daniel Barenboim, (who
wanted to take part in the evening but the dates didn't work out) and
about twenty minutes of Rubinstein himself, playing and talking.
There will then be a panel discussion with Janina Fialkowska
(Rubinstein's last protégé) members of the Guarneri String Quartet
and Max Wilcox (Rubinstein's record manager at RCA who supervised
all his last recordings from 1960 whom I am flying in from New York)
to be moderated by Ronald Harwood (playwright and writer - Taking
Sides, screenplay The Pianist - who is a passionate and knowledgeable
music lover), interval, 10 minutes solo piano contribution by
Alexander Gavrylyuk, winner of the last Rubinstein Competition, and
finally the Schumann Quintet - Janina Fialkowska and the Guarneri.

Tickets will be £20 to £25 from January 7th 2008 at the Royal
Academy Box Office, telephone +44207873 7300. All proceeds will go
to the Rubinstein Competition in Israel.
I had to grab the date while I could as the Quartet is giving a
lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall in London on January 21st and
they will be disbanding at the end of the 2008-9 season. After their
wonderful collaboration with Rubinstein - instigated incidentally by
Max Wilcox, they are an essential link.

I am in touch with the BBC amongst others concerning interviews for
the quartet and Max - most especially to dispel misinformation
concerning his insistence on a blown-up piano sound, etc., etc.!
Rubinstein's two younger children, Alina and John are very
enthusiastic about the idea and hope to be able to join us.
There you are! You are the first to know apart from those directly
involved, and it would be great to meet any of you able to come.

Annabelle

(End of message)

If there are any changes or updates, I'll keep everyone informed.

Thank you for allowing me to share this information which I hope will
be of interest to many of you!

Jonathan Cahill
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomageToArthurRubinstein/