Upon his move to Paris in 1904, Rubinstein met the impresario Gabriel Astruc and signed a contract with him. This sparked off his great international career, taking him on world-round tours: to the United States in 1906 (New York's Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston), Vienna, Rome, Russia, London (where he played in duo with Pablo Casals and Jacques Thilbaud), Spain, and, on a number of occasions, to Warsaw to give a series of recitals, chamber concerts (played with the violinist Paweł Kochański, the cellist Jan Sebelik and other top musicians) and symphony concerts with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Emil Młynarski, Grzegorz Fitelberg and Henryk Opieński. In 1917-18 he took his first artistic trip to South America, performing in Buenos Aires and, a number of times, in Montevideo, Santiago de Chile and Rio de Janeiro.
After Mussolini's anti-Jewish laws were proclaimed in 1938, Rubinstein cancelled his Italian concerts, returned the decorations received from the Italian government and, in October 1939, left with his family for the United States. He became an American citizen in 1946, refusing ever to play in Germany in protest of Nazi crimes.
His first post-war visit to Poland took place in 1958 and included concerts in Kraków and Warsaw. In 1960 he was the honorary chair of the jury of the 6th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, the event which he opened by playing Frederick Chopin's Piano concerto in F minor with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Witold Rowicki. In 1966 he opened the 10th "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music, performing Karol Szymanowski's Symphony no. 4 (dedicated to himself) with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stanisław Wisłocki. In 1975 he took part in a concert marking the 60th anniversary of the Lodz Philharmonic, playing Chopin's Concerto in F minor and Beethoven's Piano concerto in E flat major with the Łódź Philharmonic Orchestra under Henryk Czyż. His last public appearance was in London's Wigmore Hall in May 1976, and his last visit to Poland and to his home town took place in 1979.
