This piano piece is the first item in a collection of six, entitled Soirées à St. Petersburg (Evenings of St. Petersburg). By 1860, Anton Rubinstein (1829 - 1894) had shed the most obvious influences in his style, chief among whom were Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, and Chopin, and begun to achieve a popularity that would remain steady for decades but finally decline in the middle twentieth century. The Romance divulges a hint of Chopin while never sounding imitative or lacking in individuality.

The Romance, in E flat major, features a beautiful melody full of passion and emotion, full of color and spirit. It is songful and flowing, and Rubinstein's keyboard writing is as usual imaginative and skillful. To observe that this piece has a "singing" character is only underscored by the fact that the composer arranged it as a song entitled "Night" (on texts by Alexander Pushkin). In that form it has received considerable attention. Adaptations of this piece have been made for violin and cello, as well, by other arrangers This Romance is the best known piece of the six in the collection, and while it has never achieved the widespread popularity of the Op. 3 Melody in F, it remains more often played than most of Rubinstein's other solo piano works and is a reliable recital item.

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