César Cui - Suite Concertante for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25

César Cui - Suite Concertante for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25
Violin - Takako Nishizaki
Conductor - Kenneth Schermerhorn
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
0:00 Intermezzo scherzando
5:59 Canzonetta
10:21 Cavatina
14:37 Tarantella
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César Antonovich Cui (Russian: Це́зарь Анто́нович Кюи́, tr. Tsézar Antónovich Kyuí, French: Cesarius Benjaminus Cui; 18 January [O.S. 6 January] 1835 - 13 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five - a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army he rose to the rank of Engineer-General (equivalent to full General), taught fortifications in Russian military academies and wrote a number of monographs on the subject.
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. 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. In addition, as indicated above as part of his profession, Cui also published many books and articles about military fortifications.
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 1874. (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.)
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; and his stinging remarks about Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.1 are often cited. (Fortunately for posterity, both works have survived their unfavorable premieres.)
Of Western composers, Cui favored Berlioz and Liszt as progressives. 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).
Cui composed in almost all genres of his time, with the distinct exceptions of the symphony, symphonic poem and the solo concerto (unlike his compatriots Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). Art songs, including many children's songs and some vocal duets, have a prominent place in Cui's catalogue. 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" ("Царскосельская статyя") and "The Burnt Letter," ("Сожжённое письмо"), both based on poems by Cui's most valued poet, Alexander Pushkin.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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