Pabst repertoire (as well as his phenomenal technique) was universal and included works by Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others, however, the pivot of his concert programs were the works of Chopin, Schumann and Liszt (whose praise Pabst was favoured with as far back as in school days in Weimar, Germany). Deservedly received the reputation of Liszt Pianist, Pabst was also unanimously acknowledged as a remarkable Schumann Pianist. Clara Schumann herself noted that "she has never heard better interpretation of Schumann than Pabst’s one". Pabst compositor’s creativity includes about 100 opuses and consists mainly of a set of piano pieces, transcriptions, and also a few romances, violin miniatures, the Piano Concerto and the Piano Trio in memory of A.G. Rubinstein.

Piano transcriptions of P. Pabst belong to the best examples of this genre. Turning to the music of Tchaikovsky, he created the works, that he gave different genre designations to: Concert paraphrase of the opera "Eugeny Onegin" and the theme of the ballet "Sleeping Beauty"; Illustrations to opera "The Queen of Spades", a fantasy on opera "Mazeppa" or Reminiscences of this opera, as it is stated in the original; transcription of "Cradle Song".

It is important that the dignity of the above paraphrase was noted, first of all, by Tchaikovsky himself, who liked Pabst’s style. In a letter to Jurgenson, he emphasized the artistry and musicality of Pabst. Everything that Tchaikovsky demanded from transcriptors clearly appeared in the arrangement of the pianist: "courage, initiative, creativity, lack of slavish submission to the composer, the strength and brilliance." The composer valued and often included in his author's concerts brilliant Pabst’s transcriptions of his music, he trust him drafting and editing collections of piano works. The proof of this is the significant fact: Paraphrase on the music of the opera "Eugeny Onegin", dedicated to N. Rubinstein, was included by Tchaikovsky in the program of the concert, which took place in Tbilisi in October 1890.

Pabst’s paraphrases were very popular, they were in the repertory of outstanding musicians: N. Rubinstein, S. Taneyev, A.I. Siloti, I. Hoffman, S. Rachmaninoff, IA Levin, KN Igumnov, V. Sofronitsky, G.R. Ginzburg and others. For example, Rachmaninov put in the end of the program some of Pabst's paraphrase as a "striking" number, after which only "Encores" followed. Greatest transcriptor Franz Liszt blessed Pabst as a pianist and creator of concert paraphrases. Having heard his Paraphrase "Mazeppa", the composer sent a congratulatory message to the author of fantasy. It is symbolic that the paraphrase for the opera "Eugeny Onegin" was firstly performed with Liszt's concert arrangement of Polonaise from the same opera (at the concert of Nikolai Rubinstein in Moscow in March 1880).

Looking from the perspective of transcription, it is possible to single out three main points in Pabst's paraphrase on the opera "Eugeny Onegin":