Cui, Cinq Petit Duos, Op. 56

The simple charm of these short works, five little duos by César Cui, has tempted me to add them to our collection of A Child’s Treasure of Music. I confess to knowing little of Cui’s music, but in that I think I have plenty of company.

We have previously discussed “The Five” in this series—the group of 19th-century Russian composers who worked to create a distinctly Russian form of classical music. They are sometimes called The Mighty Handful, or “fistful,” or, as Carol reminds me, Могучая кучка. We have featured works by four of the five: Borodin, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, and Rimsky-Korsakov. So it’s time to take on the fifth member of this group, César Cui (1835-1918).

Like the others, Cui had a professional life outside of music and had not received conservatory training. He served in the Imperial Russian Army as an engineer and reached the rank of general. Much of his military career focused on teaching fortifications at military academies, and he receives recognition as a noted expert in this field.

In music, Cui is least well remembered of the Five and his works least often performed. His music also tends to be less specifically Russian in many cases. But his works include many songs, some based on texts by Pushkin and many dealing with fairy tales and children’s themes.

Cui’s major works were operas: nine serious operas, two comic operas, and four operas for children. But unlike the other member of his group, he composed no symphonies, tone poems, or concertos. Smaller-scale works, in addition to the songs, include choral works and quite a few chamber works, including these Cinq petit duos written in 1897.