César Cui

César Cui led a double life, and music was the smaller half. Born in Vilnius to a French father who had stayed behind after Napoleon's retreat from Russia, he became an army engineer and an authority on military fortifications, eventually rising to the rank of general and teaching the subject to officers. Composing and music criticism filled his evenings.

He belonged to the Mighty Handful, the circle of five Russian composers, alongside Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov, who wanted a distinctly Russian music. Cui was the group's sharpest pen: his newspaper reviews promoted his friends and attacked their rivals, and today he is remembered more for the criticism than for the compositions. His own music runs to operas, songs, and short piano pieces in a graceful, French-leaning style.

He is the least performed of the five, so start small: a recital of his songs or his miniature piano pieces shows him at his most natural.