Rachmaninoff admitted that Rubinstein was not note-perfect at these concerts,Sachs, 82 remembering a memory lapse during Balakirev's Islamey, where Rubinstein improvised in the style of the piece until remembering the rest of it four minutes later., as quoted in Martyn, 368 In Rubinstein's defense, however, Rachmaninoff said that "for every possible mistake [Rubinstein] may have made, he gave, in return, ideas and musical tone pictures that would have made up for a million mistakes."Sachs
