 Rubinstein, a highly prolific composer in his own right, was almost as backward-looking as Zaremba, writing in a Germanic style similar to Schumann and Mendelssohn.Though as a teacher Rubinstein would try to foster his students' imaginations, he also expected them to remain as conservative as he was.Over the summer holiday with his family in 1866, when evening activities turned to music, Tchaikovsky invariably played Mendelssohn's "Italian" Symphony, Schumann's First or Third Symphonies, or "Das Paradies und die Peri".