No. 2 In E Minor Moderato Assai - Music

No. 2 In E Minor Moderato Assai by Цезарь Антонович Кюи

Цезарь Антонович Кюи

Artist Biography For Цезарь Антонович Кюи

César Antonovich Cui Russian Це́зарь Анто́нович Кюи́ Tsezar' Antonovič Kjui 18 January O.S. 6 January 1835 – 13 March 1918 Was A Russian Of French And Lithuanian Descent. His Profession Was As An Army Officer And A Teacher Of Fortifications His Avocational Life Has Particular Significance In The History Of Music In That He Was A Composer And Music Critic In This Sideline He Is Known As A Member Of The Five The Group Of Russian Composers Under The Leadership Of Mily Balakirev Dedicated To The Production Of A Specifically Russian Type Of Music. Biography
Upbringing And Career Cesarius-Benjaminus Цезарий-Вениамин Cui Was Born In Vilnius Vilna Governorate Russian Empire Now Vilnius Lithuania To A Roman Catholic Family As The Youngest Of Five Children. His French Father Antoine Name Russianized As Anton Leonardovich Had Entered Russia As A Member Of Napoleon's Army In 1812 Settled In Vilnius Upon Their Defeat And Married A Local Woman Named Julia Gucewicz. 2 Amidst This Multi-Ethnic Environment Young César Grew Up Learning French Russian Polish And Lithuanian. 3 Before Finishing Gymnasium In 1850 Cui Was Sent To Saint Petersburg To Prepare To Enter The Chief Engineering School Which He Did The Next Year At Age 16. 4 In 1855 He Was Graduated From The Academy And After Advanced Studies At The Nikolaevsky Engineering Academy Now Military Engineering-Technical University Russian Военный Инженерно-Технический Университет He Began His Military Career In 1857 As An Instructor In Fortifications. 5 His Students Over The Decades Included Several Members Of The Imperial Family Most Notably Nicolas II. 6 Cui Eventually Ended Up Teaching At Three Of The Military Academies In Saint Petersburg. 7 Cui's Study Of Fortifications Gained From Frontline Assignment During The Russo-Turkish War Of 1877-1878 Proved Quite Important For His Career. As An Expert On Military Fortifications Cui Eventually Attained The Academic Status Of Professor In 1880 And The Military Rank Of General In 1906. 8 His Writings On Fortifications Included Textbooks That Were Widely Used In Several Successive Editions See Bibliography Below .
Avocational Life In Music Despite His Achievements As A Professional Military Academic Cui Is Best Known In The West For His "other" Life In Music. As A Boy In Vilnius He Received Piano Lessons Studied Chopin's Works And Began Composing Little Pieces At Fourteen Years Of Age. In The Few Months Before He Was Sent To Petersburg He Managed To Have Some Lessons In Music Theory With The Polish Composer Stanisław Moniuszko Who Was Residing In Vilnius At The Time. 9 10 Cui's Musical Direction Changed In 1856 When He Met Mily Balakirev And Began To Be More Seriously Involved With Music. 11 Even Though He Was Composing Music And Writing Music Criticism In His Spare Time Cui Turned Out To Be An Extremely Prolific Composer And Feuilletonist. His Public "debut" As A Composer Occurred 1859 With The Performance Of His Orchestral Scherzo Op. 1 Under The Baton Of Anton Rubinstein And The Auspices Of The Russian Musical Society. 12 In 1869 The First Public Performance Of An Opera By Cui Took Place This Was His William Ratcliff Based On The Tragedy By Heinrich Heine But It Did Not Ultimately Have Success Partially Because Of The Harshness Of His Own Writings In The Music Press. 13 14 All But One Of His Operas Were Composed To Russian Texts The One Exception Le Flibustier Based On A Play By Jean Richepin Premiered At The Opéra-Comique In Paris In 1894 Twenty-Five Years After Ratcliff But It Did Not Succeed Either. 15 Cui's More Successful Stage Works During His Lifetime Were The One-Act Comic Opera The Mandarin's Son Publicly Premiered In 1878 The Three-Act Prisoner Of The Caucasus 1883 Based On Pushkin And The One-Act Mademoiselle Fifi 1903 Based On Guy De Maupassant. 16 Besides Flibustier The Only Other Operas By Cui Performed In His Lifetime Outside Of The Russian Empire Were Prisoner Of The Caucasus In Liège 1886 And The Children's Opera Puss In Boots In Rome 1915 . 17 Cui's Activities In Musical Life Included Also Membership On The Opera Selection Committee At The Mariinsky Theatre This Stint Ended In 1883 When Both He And Rimsky-Korsakov Left The Committee In Protest Of Its Rejection Of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina. 18 During 1896-1904 He Was Director Of The Petersburg Branch Of The Russian Musical Society. 19 Among The Many Musicians Cui Knew In His Life Franz Liszt Looms Large. Liszt Valued The Music Of Russian Composers Quite Highly For Cui's Opera William Ratcliff He Expressed Some Of The Highest Praise. 20 Cui's Book La Musique En Russie And Suite Pour Piano Op. 21 Are Dedicated To The Elder Composer. In Addition Cui's Tarantelle For Orchestra Op. 12 Formed The Basis For Liszt's Last Piano Transcription. Two Personalities Of Direct Significance For Cui Were Women Who Were Specially Devoted To His Music. In Belgium The Comtesse De Mercy-Argenteau 1837–1890 Was Most Influential In Making Possible The Staging There Of Prisoner Of The Caucasus In 1885. 21 In Moscow Mariya Kerzina With Her Husband Arkadiy Kerzin Formed In 1896 The Circle Of Russian Music Lovers A Performance Society Which Began In 1898 To Give Special Place To Works By Cui Among Those Of Other Russian Composers In Its Concerts. 22 In Such A Long And Active Musical Life As Cui's There Were Many Accolades. In The Late 1880s And Early 1890s Several Foreign Musical Societies Honored Cui With Memberships. Shortly After The Staging Of Le Flibustier In Paris Cui Was Elected As A Correspondent Member Of The Académie Française And Awarded The Cross Of The Légion D'honneur. In 1896 The Belgian Royal Academy Of Literature And Art Made Him A Member. 23 In 1909 And 1910 Events Were Held In Honor Of Cui's 50th Anniversary As A Composer. 24 Family Cui Married Mal'vina Rafailovna Bamberg Мальвина Рафаиловна Бамберг In 1858. He Had Met Her At The Home Of Alexander Dargomyzhsky From Whom She Was Taking Singing Lessons 25 Among The Musical Works Cui Dedicated To Her Is The Early Scherzo Op. 1 1857 Which Uses Themes Based On Her Maiden Name BAmBErG And His Own Initials C.C. And The Comic Opera The Mandarin's Son. César And Mal'vina Had Two Children Lidiya And Aleksandr. Lidiya An Amateur Singer Married And Had A Son Named Yuri Borisovich Amoretti In The Period Before The October Revolution Aleksandr Was A Member Of The Russian Senate. 26 Last Years And Death In 1916 The Composer Went Blind Although He Was Able To Compose Small Pieces By Dictation. 27 Cui Died On 26 March 1918 From Cerebral Apoplexy And Was Buried Next To His Wife Mal'vina Who Had Died In 1899 At The Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery In Saint Petersburg. In 1939 His Body Was Reinterred In Tikhvin Cemetery At The Alexander Nevsky Monastery Saint Petersburg To Lie Beside The Other Members Of The Five. 28 Cui As A Music Critic As A Writer On Music Cui Contributed Almost 800 Articles Between 1864 And 1918 To Various Newspapers And Other Publications In Russia And Europe. He "retired" From Regular Music Criticism In 1900. His Wide Coverage Included Concerts Recitals Musical Life New Publications Of Music And Personalities. A Significant Number Of His Articles Ca. 300 Dealt With Opera. 29 Several Of His Themed Sets Of Articles Were Reissued As Monographs These Covered Topics As Varied As The Original 1876 Production Of Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelungen In Bayreuth The Development Of The Russian Romance Art Song Music In Russia And Anton Rubinstein's Seminal Lectures On The History Of Piano Music Of 1888-1889. See List Of Writings Below. In Addition As Indicated Above As Part Of His Profession Cui Also Published Many Books And Articles About Military Fortifications. Because Of Rules Related To His Status In The Russian Military In The Early Years His Musico-Critical Articles Had To Be Published Under A Pseudonym Which Consisted Of Three Asterisks *** In Petersburg Musical Circles However It Became Clear Who Was Writing The Articles. 30 31 His Musical Reviews Began In The St.Petersburg Vedomosti Expressing Disdain For Music Before Beethoven Such As Mozart And His Advocacy Of Originality In Music. Sarcasm Was A Regular Feature Of His Feuilletons. Cui's Primary Goal As A Critic Was To Promote The Music Of Contemporary Russian Composers Especially The Works Of His Now Better-Known Co-Members Of The Five. Even They However Were Not Spared Negative Reactions From Him Here And There Especially In His Blistering Review Of The First Production Of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov In 1873. 32 Later In Life Cui Championed The Music Of This Late Colleague Of His To The Point Of Making The First Completion Of Mussorgsky's Unfinished Opera The Fair At Sorochyntsi. 33 Russian Composers Outside Of The Five However Were Often More Likely To Produce A Negative Reaction. This Derived At Least Partly From Distrust Of The Western-Style Conservatory System In Favor Of The Autodidactic Approach That The Five Had Practiced. Cui Lambasted Tchaikovsky's Second Performed Opera The Oprichnik For Instance 34 And His Stinging Remarks About Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.1 35 Are Often Cited. Fortunately For Posterity Both Works Have Survived Their Unfavorable Premieres. Of Western Composers Cui Favored Berlioz And Liszt As Progressives. 36 He Admired Wagner's Aspirations Concerning Music Drama But Did Not Agree With That Composer's Methods To Achieve Them Such As The Leitmotif System And The Predominance Of The Orchestra . 37 Late In Life Cui's Presumed Progressiveness As Espoused In The 1860s And '70s Faded And He Showed Firm Hostility Towards The Younger "modernists" Such As Richard Strauss And Vincent D'Indy. 38 Cui's Very Last Published Articles From 1917 Constituted Merciless Parodies Including The Little Song "Гимн Футуризму" "Hymn To Futurism" And "Краткая Инструкция Как Не Будучи Музыкантом Сделаться Гениальным Модерн-Композитором" "Concise Directions On How To Become A Modern Composer Of Genius Without Being A Musician" . 39 Cui As A Composer Cui Composed In Almost All Genres Of His Time With The Distinct Exceptions Of The Symphony And The Symphonic Poem Unlike His Compatriots Balakirev Borodin Mussorgsky And Rimsky-Korsakov . By Far Art Songs Constitute The Greatest Number Of Works By Cui These Include A Few Vocal Duets And Many Songs For Children. Several Of His Songs Are Available Also In Versions With Orchestral Accompaniment Including His Bolero Op. 17 Which Was Dedicated To The Singer Marcella Sembrich. Some Of His Most Famous Art Songs Include "The Statue At Tsarskoye Selo" "Царско-Сельская Статyя" And "The Burnt Letter " "Сожжённое Письмо" Both Based On Poems By Cui's Most Valued Poet Alexander Pushkin. In Addition Cui Wrote Many Works For Piano And For Chamber Groups Including Three String Quartets Numerous Choruses And Several Orchestral Works But His Most Significant Efforts Are Reflected In The Operas Of Which He Composed Fifteen Of Varying Proportions. Besides Children's Music Which Includes Four Fairytale Operas As Well As The Aforementioned Songs Three Other Special Categories Of Compositions Stand Out Among His Works 1 Pieces Inspired By And Dedicated To The Comtesse De Mercy-Argenteau Whom The Composer Knew From 1885 To Her Death In 1890 2 Works Associated With The Circle Of Russian Music Lovers The "Kerzin Circle" And 3 Pieces Inspired By The Russo-Japanese War And World War I. As To The Current Status Of Cui The Composer In The Last Few Decades One Of His Children's Operas Of Which He Composed Four Entitled Puss-In-Boots From Perrault Has Had Wide Appeal In Germany. 40 Nevertheless Despite The Fact That More Of Cui's Music Is Being Made Available In Recent Years In Recordings And In New Printed Editions His Status Today In The Repertoire Is Considerably Small Based In The West Primarily On Some Of His Piano And Chamber Music Such As The Violin And Piano Piece Called Orientale Op. 50 No. 9 41 And A Number Of Solo Songs. The Received Wisdom That He Is Not A Particularly Talented Composer At Least For Large Genres Has Been Cited As A Cause For This State Of Affairs His Strongest Talent Is Said To Lie In The Crystallization Of Mood At An Instant As Captured In His Art Songs And Instrumental Miniatures. 42 Although His Abilities As An Orchestrator Too Have Been Disparaged Notably By His Compatriot Rimsky-Korsakov 43 Some Recent Recordings E.G. Of His One-Act Opera Feast In Time Of Plague 44 From Pushkin Suggest That Cui's Dramatic Music Might Be More Interesting To Pursue With Regard To This Feature. Cui's Works Are Not So Nationalistic As Those Of The Other Members Of The Five With The Exception Of Pushkin His Operas Do Not Display A Strong Attraction To Russian Sources. In The Area Of Art Song However The Vast Majority Of Cui's Vocal Music Is Based On Russian Texts. Overt Attempts At Russian "folk" Musical Style Can Be Detected In Passages From His First Act Of The Collaborative Mlada 1872 The Captain's Daughter A Couple Of The Children's Operas And A Few Songs Many Other Passages In His Music Reflect The Stylistic Curiosities Associated With Russian Art Music Of The 19th Century Such As Whole Tone Scales And Certain Harmonic Devices. Nevertheless His Style Is More Often Compared To Robert Schumann 45 And To French Composers Such As Gounod 46 Than To Mikhail Glinka Or To Cui's Russian Contemporaries.