César Cui - 25 Preludes for Piano

Jeffrey Biegel - Piano 00:00 1- Allegro Maestoso 01:31 2- Moderato Assai 04:51 3 - Allegro 06:16 4 - Allegro 08:39 5 - Allegreto 11:44 6 - Andante 17:07 7 - Allegro non troppo 18:43 8 - Allegro 21:21 9 - Andantino 24:42 10 - Allegro non troppo 26:41 11 - Allegretto 28:26 12 - Allegretto 31:02 13 - Andante 36:01 14 - Moderato 38:02 15 - Andantino 40:36 16 - Andantino 43:39 17 - Larghetto 47:20 18 - Allegretto 49:39 19 - Allegretto 51:02 20 - Allegro non troppo 53:07 21 - Allegro 55:45 22 - Lento 01:02:06 23 - Allegro non troppo 01:03:30 24 - Moderato 01:04:53 25 - Allegro non troppo César Cui (1835-1918) was a Russian Composer and an officer of the Imperial Russian Army. He was a member of the Belyayev circle and The Five – a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. César Cui came from a family of French, Polish and Lithuanian descent. The original French spelling of his surname was “Queuille“. 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. Cui’s musical direction changed in 1856, when he met Mily Balakirev and began to be more seriously involved with music. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please support this channel