Composer caesar cui short biography. caesar cui

The composer's creative heritage is quite extensive: 14 operas, including The Son of the Mandarin (1859), William Ratcliffe (based on Heinrich Heine, 1869), Angelo (based on the plot of Victor Hugo, 1875), The Saracen (based on the plot Alexandre Dumas père, 1898), The Captain's Daughter (after A. S. Pushkin, 1909), 4 children's operas; works for orchestra, chamber instrumental ensembles, piano, violin, cello; choirs, vocal ensembles, romances (more than 250), distinguished by lyrical expressiveness, grace, subtlety of vocal recitation. Popular among them are “The Burnt Letter”, “The Tsarskoe Selo Statue” (lyrics by A. S. Pushkin), “Aeolian Harps” (lyrics by A. N. Maikov), etc.

Biography

Born on January 6, 1835 in the city of Vilna. His father, Anton Leonardovich Cui, a native of France, served in the Napoleonic army. Wounded in 1812 near Smolensk during the Patriotic War of 1812, frostbitten, he did not return with the remnants of Napoleon's defeated troops to France, but remained forever in Russia. In Vilna, Anton Cui, who married Yulia Gutsevich from a poor Lithuanian noble family, taught French at the local high school. Caesar's older brother, Alexander (1824-1909), later became famous architect.

At the age of 5, Cui was already playing on the piano the melody of a military march he had heard. At the age of ten, his sister began to teach him to play the piano; then his teachers were Herman and the violinist Dio. While studying at the Vilna gymnasium, Cui, under the influence of Chopin's mazurkas, who remained forever his favorite composer, composed a mazurka on the death of one teacher. Moniuszko, then living in Vilna, offered to give the talented young man free lessons in harmony, which, however, lasted only seven months.

In 1851, Cui entered the Main Engineering School (now the Military Engineering and Technical University) and four years later was promoted to officer, with the rank of ensign. In 1857 he graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, now the St. Petersburg Military Engineering and Technical University, with a promotion to lieutenants. He was left at the academy as a tutor of topography, and then as a teacher of fortification; in 1875 he received the rank of colonel. In connection with the beginning of the Russian-Turkish war, Cui, at the request of his former student Skobelev, in 1877 he was sent to the theater of operations. He reviewed fortification works, participated in the strengthening of Russian positions near Constantinople. In 1878, based on the results of a brilliantly written work on Russian and Turkish fortifications, he was appointed adjunct professor, holding a chair in his specialty at the same time in three military academies: the General Staff, Nikolaev Engineering and Mikhailovskaya Artillery. In 1880 he became a professor, and in 1891 - an honored professor of fortification at the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, was promoted to major general.

Cui was the first among Russian engineers to propose the use of armored turrets in land fortresses. He acquired a great and honorable reputation as a professor of fortification and as the author of outstanding works on this subject. He was invited to give lectures on fortification to the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II, as well as several grand dukes. In 1904, Ts. A. Cui was promoted to the rank of engineer-general.

Most early romances Cui was written around 1850 (“6 Polish Songs”, published in Moscow, in 1901), but his composing activity began to develop seriously only after he graduated from the academy (see the memoirs of Comrade Cui, playwright V. A. Krylov, “Historical Bulletin", 1894, II). On the texts of Krylov, romances were written: “The Secret” and “Sleep, my friend”, on the words of Koltsov - the duet “So the soul is torn”. Of great importance in the development of Cui's talent was friendship with Balakirev (1857), who in the first period of Cui's work was his adviser, critic, teacher and partly collaborator (mainly in terms of orchestration, which forever remained the most vulnerable side of Cui's texture), and a close acquaintance with his circle: Mussorgsky (1857), Rimsky-Korsakov (1861) and Borodin (1864), as well as with Dargomyzhsky (1857), who had a great influence on the production vocal style Cui.

On October 19, 1858, Cui married Malvina Rafailovna Bamberg, a student of Dargomyzhsky. The orchestral scherzo F-dur is dedicated to her, with the main theme, B, A, B, E, G (the letters of her last name) and the persistent holding of notes C, C (Cesar Cui) - an idea clearly inspired by Schumann, who generally had a great influence on Cui . The performance of this scherzo in St. Petersburg in a symphony concert of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (December 14, 1859) was Cui's public debut as a composer. By the same time, two piano scherzos in C-dur and gis-moll and the first experience in operatic form: two acts of the opera " Prisoner of the Caucasus"(1857-1858), later converted into a three-act and staged in 1883 on stage in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the same time, a one-act comic opera in the light genre The Son of the Mandarin (1859) was written, staged at Cui's home performance with the participation of the author himself, his wife and Mussorgsky, and publicly at the Artists' Club in St. Petersburg (1878).

Caesar Cui participated in the Belyaevsky circle. In 1896-1904 Cui years was the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch, and in 1904 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Musical Society.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd

• 1867-1868 - tenement house Sinebryukhova - Gagarinskaya embankment, 16, apt. eleven
• 1891 - 03/26/1918 - Stepanov's profitable house - embankment of the Fontanka River, 38.

Music

Reformist undertakings in the field of dramatic music, partly under the influence of Dargomyzhsky, in contrast to the conventions and banalities of Italian opera, were expressed in the opera William Ratcliff (based on the plot of Heine), begun (in 1861) even earlier " Stone Guest". The unification of music and text, the careful development of vocal parts, the use in them not so much of the cantilena (still appearing where the text requires), but of melodic, melodious recitative, the interpretation of the choir as an expression of the life of the masses, the symphony of orchestral accompaniment - all these features, in connection with the virtues of music, beautiful, elegant and original (especially in harmony) made Ratcliff a new stage in the development of Russian opera, although the music of Ratcliff does not have a national imprint. The weakest side of the Ratcliffe score was the orchestration. The significance of Ratcliff, staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1869), was not appreciated by the public, perhaps due to the sloppy performance, against which the author himself protested (by a letter to the editors of St. Petersburg Vedomosti), asking the public not to attend performances of his opera (on Ratcliff, see Rimsky-Korsakov's article in Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti on February 14, 1869, and in the posthumous edition of his articles). Ratcliff reappeared in the repertoire only 30 years later (on a private stage in Moscow). A similar fate befell Angelo (1871-1875, based on the plot of V. Hugo), where the same operatic principles were fully completed. Staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1876), this opera did not stay in the repertoire and was renewed only for a few performances on the same stage in 1910, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of composer activity author. Angelo was more successful in Moscow ( Grand Theatre, 1901). Mlada (act 1; see Borodin) belongs to the same time (1872). Next to "Angelo" in terms of artistic completeness and significance of music, one can put the opera "Flibustier" (Russian translation - "By the Sea"), written (1888-1889) to the text of Jean Richepin and walking, without much success, only in Paris, on stage Opera Comique (1894). In music, her French text is interpreted with the same truthful expressiveness as Russian - in Cui's Russian operas. In other works of dramatic music: "The Saracen" (on the plot "Charles VII with his vassals" by A. Dumas, op. 1896-1898; Mariinsky Theater, 1899); "A Feast in the Time of Plague" (op. 1900; performed in St. Petersburg and Moscow); "M-lle Fifi" (op. 1900, on the subject of Maupassant; performed in Moscow and Petrograd); “Mateo Falcone” (op. 1901, after Merimee and Zhukovsky, performed in Moscow) and “ Captain's daughter”(comp. 1907-1909, Mariinsky Theater, 1911; in Moscow, 1913) Cui, without sharply changing his previous operatic principles, gives (partly depending on the text) a clear preference for the cantilena.

Operas for children should be singled out as a separate section: The Snow Bogatyr (1904); Little Red Riding Hood (1911); "Puss in Boots" (1912); "Ivanushka the Fool" (1913). In them, as in his children's songs, Cui showed a lot of simplicity, tenderness, grace, wit.

After the operas, Cui's romances (about 400) are of the greatest artistic importance, in which he abandoned the couplet form and the repetition of the text, which always finds true expression both in the vocal part, the melody, remarkable for its beauty and masterful recitation, and accompanied by a rich harmony and beautiful piano sonority. The choice of texts for romances is made with great taste. For the most part they are purely lyrical - the area closest to Cui's talent; he achieves in it not so much the strength of passion, but the warmth and sincerity of feeling, not so much the breadth of scope, but the elegance and careful finishing of details. Sometimes, in a few bars of a short text, Cui gives a whole psychological picture. Among Cui's romances there are narrative, descriptive, and humorous ones. In the later period of Cui's work, there are narrative, descriptive, and humorous ones. In the later period of Cui's work, he strives to publish romances in the form of collections of poems by the same poet (Rishpen, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Count A. K. Tolstoy).

About 70 more choirs and 2 cantatas belong to vocal music: 1) “In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty” (1913) and 2) “Your verse” (words by I. Grinevskaya), in memory of Lermontov. IN instrumental music- for the orchestra, string quartet and for individual instruments - Cui is not so typical, but in this area he wrote: 4 suites (one of them - 4 - is dedicated to M-me Mercy d'Argenteau, a great friend of Cui, for the distribution of whose works she did a lot in France and Belgium), 2 scherzos, a tarantella (there is a brilliant piano transcription by F. Liszt), Marche solennelle and a waltz (op. 65). Then there are 3 string quartets, many pieces for piano, violin and cello. In total published (until 1915) 92 Cui's opus'a; this number does not include operas and other works (over 10), by the way, the end of the 1st scene in Dargomyzhsky's Stone Guest (written according to the last will of the latter).

Cui's talent is more lyrical than dramatic, although he often achieves a significant power of tragedy in his operas; He is especially good at female characters. Power, grandiosity are alien to his music. Everything rough, tasteless or banal is hateful to him. He carefully finishes his compositions and is more inclined towards miniature than to broad constructions, to variational form than to sonata. He is an inexhaustible melodist, an inventive harmonist to the point of sophistication; he is less diverse in rhythm, rarely resorts to contrapuntal combinations and is not quite fluent in modern orchestral means. His music, bearing the features of French elegance and clarity of style, Slavic sincerity, flight of thought and depth of feeling, is devoid, with few exceptions, of a specially Russian character.

Musical critic

Started in 1864 (“Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti”) and continued until 1900 (“News”), Cui’s musical-critical activity was of great importance in the history of musical development Russia. Fighting, progressive character (especially in more early period), the fiery propaganda of Glinka and the "new Russian musical school", literary brilliance, wit, created him, as a critic, a huge influence. He also promoted Russian music abroad, contributing to the French press and publishing his articles from Revue et gazette musicale (1878-1880) as a separate book, La musique en Russie (P., 1880). Cui's extreme hobbies include his belittling of the classics (Mozart, Mendelssohn) and a negative attitude towards Richard Wagner. Separately published by him: "The Ring of the Nibelungs" (1889); "History of Piano Literature" course by A. Rubinstein (1889); "Russian Romance" (St. Petersburg, 1896).

Since 1864, he acted as a music critic, defending the principles of realism and folk in music, promoting the work of M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky and young representatives of the New Russian School, as well as innovative trends in foreign music. As a critic, he often published devastating articles on Tchaikovsky's work. Opera Cui, Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg) reflected the aesthetic attitudes of " mighty handful". At the same time, Cui, as a critic, is characterized by romantic conventionality, stilted images, which are characteristic of his work in the future. Cui's systematic musical-critical activity continued until the early 1900s.

Works on fortification

Cui is the author of capital scientific papers on fortification, created a fortification course, which he taught at the Nikolaev Engineering, Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academies and at the Academy of the General Staff. He was the first among Russian military engineers to propose the use of armored turrets in land fortresses.

Cui's writings on military engineering: "A short textbook of field fortification" (7 editions); "Travel notes of an engineering officer in the theater of war in Europe in Turkey" ("Engineering Journal"); "Attack and defense of modern fortresses" ("Military Collection", 1881); "Belgium, Antwerp and Brialmont" (1882); "Experience of rational determination of the size of the fortress garrison" ("Engineering Journal"); "The role of long-term fortification in the defense of states" ("Course Nick. Engineering Academy"); "A Brief Historical Sketch of Long-Term Fortification" (1889); "Textbook of fortification for infantry cadet schools" (1892); "A Few Words on Modern Fortification Fermentation" (1892). - See V. Stasov "Biographical Sketch" ("Artist", 1894,? 34); S. Kruglikov "William Ratcliff" (ibid.); N. Findeisen " Bibliographic index musical works and critical articles by Cui” (1894); "WITH. cui. Esquisse critique par la C-tesse de Mercy Argenteau ”(II, 1888; the only comprehensive essay on Cui); P. Weimarn "Caesar Cui as a Romansist" (St. Petersburg, 1896); Kontyaev "Piano works of Cui" (St. Petersburg, 1895).

operas

(Except Flibuster, all Cui's operas were first written in Russian.)

• Prisoner of the Caucasus (according to Pushkin)
• son of the tangerine
• Mlada (1st act; the rest was composed by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Minkus)
• William Ratcliffe (in three acts, libretto by V. Krylov based on the dramatic ballad of the same name by Heinrich Heine, translated by A. N. Pleshcheev; premiered on February 14, 1869 at the Mariinsky Theater)
• Angelo (based on a drama by Victor Hugo)
• Le Flibustier = Flibustier (By the sea) (based on the comedy by J. Richpin)
• Saracen (based on the play by Dumas père)
• Feast during the plague (according to Pushkin)
• Mademoiselle Fifi (after Maupassant and Metenier)
• Snow hero
• Mateo Falcone (after Merimee and Zhukovsky)
• Captain's daughter (according to Pushkin)
• Little Red Riding Hood (according to Perrault)
• Puss in Boots (by Perrault)
• Ivan the Fool

Cui completed two operas by other composers:

• Stone guest (Dargomyzhsky)
• Sorochinskaya Fair (Mussorgsky)

Literary works of Cui

By music

• Selected articles. Leningrad: State. music publishing house, 1952. (On pp. 624-660 of this volume is the "Bibliographic index of articles by Ts. A. Cui, 1864-1918".)
• Selected articles about the executors. Moscow: State. music publishing house, 1957.
• Musically critical articles. T.1. With a portrait of the author and a preface by A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Petrograd: Musical contemporary, 1918.

• History of Piano Music Literature. Course of A. G. Rubinshtein. 1888-1889. 2nd ed. St. Petersburg: I. Yurgenson, 1911. (The articles were first published in 1889 (1) in Weeks under the heading A. G. Rubinstein's sessions. A course in the history of piano music literature; in L'Art, revue bimensuelle illustree under the heading Cours de litterature musicale des oeuvres pour le piano au Conservatoire de Saint Petersbourg.)
• Ring of the Nibelungen, Richard Wagner's tetralogy: A musical-critical essay. 2nd ed. Moscow: P. Yurgenson, 1909. (1st monographic ed. 1889. The articles were first published in 1876 in St. Petersburg Vedomosti under the heading Bayreuth Musical Celebration.)
• La musique en Russie. Paris: G. Fischbacher, 1880; rpt. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1974. (The articles first appeared in 1880 in the Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris.)
• Russian romance: an outline of its development. St. Petersburg: N. F. Findeizen, 1896. (The articles were first published in 1895 in the Artist and in the Week.)

• "A Historical Sketch of Music in Russia" ["Historical Sketch of Music in Russia" (in English)], The Century Library of Music. Ed. by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Vol. 7. New York: The Century Co., 1901, pp. 197-219.

By fortification

• "Attack and Defense of Modern Forts (Development of the Question in Prussia)". SPb: Type. Dep. appanages, 1881. (From the Military Collection for 1881, No. 7)
• "Belgium, Antwerp and Brialmont". SPb: Type Dep. appanages, 1882. (From the Engineering Journal, 1881, No. 11)
• Long-term fortification: a historical essay. The course of Mikhailovskaya art. acad. St. Petersburg: 187-?.
• Fortification notes of the junior cadet class of the Nikolaev Engineering School. St. Petersburg: 186-?
• Brief historical outline of long-term fortification. 3., add. ed. SPb.: Type. Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1897. (1st ed. 1877.)
• A short textbook of field fortification. 9th view ed. SPb.: In Berezovsky, 1903. (1st ed.: Notes of field fortification. Junior class course of Nikolaevsk. engineer and Mikhailovsk. artillery school, 1873; 2nd ed.: Field fortification. Course of Nikolaevsk.-eng. , Mikhailovsk Artillery and Nikolaev Cavalry Schools, 1877.)
• Experience of rational determination of the size of fortress garrisons. SPb: Tipo-lit. A. E. Landau, 1899.
• "Travel notes of an engineering officer in the theater of operations in European Turkey", St. Petersburg: Type. Dep. appanages, 1878. (From the Engineering Journal, 1878, Nos. 8, 9.)
• "The growth of fortresses and the change in their form depending on the increase in the number of armies." St. Petersburg: 1901. (Society of Zealots of Military Knowledge, No. 37, Jan. 24, 1901)
• Fortification textbook for infantry cadet schools. Ed. 2nd, view. and additional SPb.: Voen. type., 1899. (1st ed. 1892)

Letters

• Selected letters. Leningrad: State. music publishing house, 1955. (On pp. 624-660 of this volume is the "Bibliographic index of articles by Ts. A. Cui, 1864-1918".)
• Airi Muselak, [The French Origin of the Russian Composer Pezar Aitonovich Cui]. Soviet Music. 1979 n°10

Caesar Antonovich Cui

Caesar Antonovich Cui was rare multifaceted personality. He left behind a rich musical heritage, but during his lifetime he was known not only as a member of "", but also as a professor of fortification - the military science of creating fortifications. He lived a long and eventful life. Cui's works are distinguished by lyrical expressiveness and refinement of composition.

Caesar's father, Anton Leonardovich Cui, was a soldier in the Napoleonic army. After the defeat in the war of 1812, he did not return to his homeland in France, but remained in Russia. He was wounded, and therefore he simply had no other choice. He settled in Vilna, where he married Yulia Gutsevich and began teaching French at the local gymnasium.

The son Caesar, born in their marriage, has already early youth began to take an interest in music. However, how to say - from youth, rather - from infancy: he was not even five, when he could already play the military marches he heard earlier by ear. When he was ten, his older sister began to teach him music.

In 1851, when the future composer was only sixteen, Caesar entered the main engineering school in St. Petersburg, and by the age of twenty he already had the rank of ensign. After graduating from the Nikolaev Engineering Academy in 1857, he received the rank of lieutenant and remained at the academy to serve as a tutor. It was in St. Petersburg that Caesar met with, as well as with the rest of the members of the Russian five.

On October 19, 1858, Cui married Malvina Bamberg, one of Dargomyzhsky's students, to whom he dedicated his first opus, the 1857 Scherzo for Piano 4-Hands. She passed away in 1899.

But the idyll of peaceful life did not last long. When the Russian-Turkish war began, Cui went to the front. There he participated in the strengthening of fortifications. In parallel, he conducted a review of fortification works. Soon he held a position in his specialty, and in three higher institutions at once.

Continuation of a brief history of life and work of Ts.A. Cui.

Influence

In the end, he rose first to professor, and then to emeritus professor, and received the rank of major general. One of the first to propose the use of armored turrets in land fortresses. Also he was famous author in his subject and a highly respected expert in his field.

So when did he manage to write music? In this he is somewhat similar to, who also skillfully combined his life's work with his hobbies. Cui wrote his very first romances in his youth, at about 19 years old. He even published them, but took up music seriously only after graduating from the academy.

Having become friends with Balakirev, who at that time was not so much phenomenal pianist and a talented composer, how much a brilliant teacher, Cui found in him the main ideological inspirer. Although he had his own quirks. However, it was he who was the main mentor of such composers as Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. In the end, Caesar Antonovich became a member of the circle, with all the ensuing consequences.

The weak side of Cui was orchestration, and therefore Balakirev began to help him with them, thus becoming not only his teacher, but also a co-author. However, as you can judge from other articles about the composers of The Mighty Handful, Balakirev did not even need to ask for help. Sometimes composers had to convince him not to help them, correct or remake their works as he saw fit. Be that as it may, Balkirev had a considerable influence both on Cui himself and on the nature of his work.

Caesar Cui became one of the main spokesmen for the "new Russian school", which was represented by members of the "Mighty Handful" (the second after Stasov). He published his views quite regularly, from 1864 until the end of the century, in various domestic and foreign newspapers and magazines, participating in heated propaganda battles, especially in the early years. His signature for a long time was "***". He even made a scathing review of the first production of Boris Godunov, which painfully wounded Mussorgsky. There is a parody comic based on some of the publications made during his life, with an inscription in Latin: "Rejoice, Caesar Cui, we, who are going to die, greet you."

Cui lived a long life, until 1918, ending his days in respectable old age. Perhaps he transferred all his genius to military affairs and teaching, since he did not eradicate all the weak points of his composing skills.

There was even an episode in his creative career when he asked the public not to go to the premiere of his new opera.

But the problem was not only mediocre orchestration, but also the sloppy performance of the work itself. Nevertheless, he created a considerable number of works, a special place among which is occupied by works for children, as well as romances.

Cui achieved approximately the same success in the field of music criticism. His manner was openly aggressive. But she did her job. Even Furthermore, his critical works, saturated with wit and a brilliant literary gift, had a considerable influence on the development of Russian music of those times. In his works, he defended the principles of realism and folk music (which was quite typical for members of the Mighty Handful), often smashed Tchaikovsky's work to smithereens and, in general, fully reflected the ideological views of the Mighty Handful.

Like Borodin, who was known in scientific circles almost more than in music, Cui made a significant contribution to the development of science, but military science. His writings on the topic of military engineering gained wide recognition in their time. Although now he is remembered mainly for his activities in the famous circles.

The Belcanto Foundation organizes concerts in Moscow featuring Cui's music. On this page you can see the flyer upcoming concerts in 2019 with Cui's music and buy a ticket for a date convenient for you.

Caesar Antonovich Cui (1835-1918) is a remarkable Russian composer. Born on January 6, 1835 in the city of Vilna; the son of a Frenchman who remained in Russia after the campaign of 1812, and a Lithuanian woman, Yulia Gutsevich. As a five-year-old child, Cui was already playing on the piano the melody of a military march he had heard. At the age of ten, his sister began to teach him to play the piano; then his teachers were Herman and the violinist Dio. While studying at the Vilna gymnasium, Cui, under the influence of Chopin's mazurkas, who remained forever his favorite composer, composed a mazurka on the death of one teacher. Moniuszko, then living in Vilna, offered to give the talented young man free lessons in harmony, which, however, lasted only six months. In 1851, Cui entered the engineering school, four years later he was promoted to officer, and two years later he graduated from the engineering academy. Left with her as a tutor of topography, then a teacher of fortification, in 1878, after a brilliant work on Russian and Turkish fortifications (1877), he was appointed professor, holding a department in his specialty simultaneously in three military academies: the general staff, engineering and artillery. Cui's earliest romances were written around 1850 ("6 Polish Songs", published in Moscow, in 1901), but his composing activity began to develop seriously only after he graduated from the academy (see the memoirs of Cui's comrade, playwright V.A. Krylova, "Historical Bulletin", 1894, II). On the texts of Krylov, romances were written: "The Secret" and "Sleep, my friend", on the words of Koltsov - the duet "So the soul is torn". Of great importance in the development of Cui's talent was friendship with Balakirev (1857), who in the first period of Cui's work was his adviser, critic, teacher and partly collaborator (mainly in terms of orchestration, which forever remained the most vulnerable side of Cui's texture), and a close acquaintance with his circle: Mussorgsky (1857), Rimsky-Korsakov (1861) and Borodin (1864), as well as with Dargomyzhsky (1857), who had a great influence on the development of Cui's vocal style. In 1858, Cui married a student of Dargomyzhsky, M.R. Bamberg. The orchestral scherzo F-dur is dedicated to her, with the main theme, B, A, B, E, G (the letters of her last name) and the persistent holding of the notes C, C (Cesar Cui) - an idea clearly inspired by Schumann, who generally had a great influence on Cui . The performance of this scherzo in St. Petersburg in the symphony concert of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (December 14, 1859) was Cui's public debut as a composer. By the same time, two piano scherzos in C-dur and gis-moll and the first experience in operatic form belong to the same time: two acts of the opera Prisoner of the Caucasus (1857 - 1858), later converted into a three-act and staged in 1883. on stage in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the same time, a one-act comic opera in the light genre "The Son of the Mandarin" (1859) was written, staged at Cui's home performance with the participation of the author himself, his wife and Mussorgsky, and publicly at the Artists' Club in St. Petersburg (1878). Reformatory undertakings in the field of dramatic music, partly under the influence of Dargomyzhsky, in contrast to the conventions and banalities of Italian opera, were expressed in the opera "William Ratcliff" (on the plot of Heine), begun (in 1861) even earlier than "The Stone Guest". The unification of music and text, the careful development of vocal parts, the use in them not so much of the cantilena (still appearing where the text requires), but of melodic, melodious recitative, the interpretation of the choir as an expression of the life of the masses, the symphony of orchestral accompaniment - all these features, in connection with the virtues of music, beautiful, elegant and original (especially in harmony) made Ratcliff a new stage in the development of Russian opera, although the music of Ratcliff does not have a national imprint. The weakest side of the Ratcliffe score was the orchestration. The significance of Ratcliff, staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1869), was not appreciated by the public, perhaps due to the sloppy performance, against which the author himself protested (by a letter to the editors of St. Petersburg Vedomosti), asking the public not to attend performances of his opera (on "Ratcliff" see the article by Rimsky-Korsakov in the "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" on February 14, 1869 and in the posthumous edition of his articles). "Ratcliff" reappeared in the repertoire only 30 years later (on a private stage in Moscow). A similar fate befell "Angelo" (1871 - 1875, based on the plot of V. Hugo), where the same operatic principles were fully completed. Staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1876), this opera did not stay in the repertoire and was renewed for only a few performances on the same stage in 1910, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composer's work. "Angelo" was more successful in Moscow (Bolshoi Theatre, 1901). Mlada (act 1; see Borodin) belongs to the same time (1872). Next to "Angelo" in terms of artistic completeness and significance of music, one can put the opera "Flibustier" (Russian translation - "By the Sea"), written (1888 - 1889) to the text of Jean Richepin and walking, without much success, only in Paris, on stage Opera Comique (1894). In music, her French text is interpreted with the same truthful expressiveness as Russian - in Cui's Russian operas. In other works of dramatic music: "Saracen" (on the plot "Charles VII with his vassals" by A. Dumas, op. 1896 - 1898; Mariinsky Theatre, 1899); "A Feast During the Plague" (op. 1900; performed in St. Petersburg and Moscow); "M-lle Fifi" (op. 1900, on the subject of Maupassant; performed in Moscow and Petrograd); "Mateo Falcone" (op. 1901, after Merimee and Zhukovsky, performed in Moscow) and "The Captain's Daughter" (op. 1907 - 1909, Mariinsky Theater, 1911; in Moscow, 1913) Cui, without sharply changing his previous operatic principles, gives (partly depending on the text) a clear preference for the cantilena. Operas for children should be singled out as a separate heading: The Snow Bogatyr (1904); "Little Red Riding Hood" (1911); "Puss in Boots" (1912); "Ivanushka the Fool" (1913). In them, as in his children's songs, Cui showed a lot of simplicity, tenderness, grace, wit. - After the operas, Cui's romances (about 400) are of the greatest artistic importance, in which he abandoned the couplet form and the repetition of the text, which always finds true expression both in the vocal part, the melody, remarkable for the beauty of the melody and the masterful recitation, and in the accompaniment, which differs rich harmony and beautiful piano sonority. The choice of texts for romances is made with great taste. For the most part they are purely lyrical - the area closest to Cui's talent; he achieves in it not so much the strength of passion, but the warmth and sincerity of feeling, not so much the breadth of scope, but the elegance and careful finishing of details. Sometimes, in a few bars of a short text, Cui gives a whole psychological picture. Among Cui's romances there are narrative, descriptive, and humorous ones. In the later period of Cui's work, there are narrative, descriptive, and humorous ones. In the later period of Cui's work, he strives to publish romances in the form of collections of poems by the same poet (Rishpen, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Count A.K. Tolstoy). About 70 more choirs and 2 cantatas belong to vocal music: 1) "In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty" (1913) and 2) "Your verse" (words by I. Grinevskaya), in memory of Lermontov. In instrumental music - for the orchestra, string quartet and for individual instruments - Cui is not so typical, but in this area he wrote: 4 suites (one of them - 4 - is dedicated to M-me Mercy d "Argenteau, Cui's great friend, for she did a lot of distribution of whose works in France and Belgium), 2 scherzos, a tarantella (there is a brilliant piano transcription by F. Liszt), "Marche solennelle" and a waltz (op. 65). Then there are 3 string quartets, many pieces for piano, for violin and cello. In total, 92 opus "a Cui was published (until 1915); this number does not include operas and other works (over 10), by the way, the end of the 1st scene in Dargomyzhsky's "Stone Guest" (written according to the dying will of the latter). Cui's talent is more lyrical than dramatic, although he often achieves in his operas a significant force of tragedy; he especially succeeds in female characters. Power, grandeur are alien to his music. Everything rough, tasteless or banal is hateful to him. He carefully finishes his compositions and is rather inclined to miniature than to broad constructions, to variational form than to sonata.He is an inexhaustible melodist, an inventive harmonica player to the point of refinement, he is less diverse in rhythm, rarely resorts to contrapuntal combinations and is not quite fluent in modern orchestral means.His music, bearing the features French elegance and clarity of style, Slavic sincerity, flight of thought and depth of feeling, devoid, with few exceptions, of a specially Russian character. - Started in 1864 ("St. Petersburg Vedomosti") and continued until 1900 ("News"), Cui's musical-critical activity was of great importance in the history of the musical development of Russia. The militant, progressive character (especially in the earlier period), the fiery propaganda of Glinka and the "new Russian school", literary brilliance, wit, created for him, as a critic, a huge influence. He also promoted Russian music abroad, contributing to the French press and publishing his articles from Revue et gazette musicale (1878 - 1880) as a separate book, La musique en Russie (P., 1880). Cui's extreme hobbies include his belittling of the classics (Mozart, Mendelssohn) and a negative attitude towards R. Wagner. Separately published by him: "The Ring of the Nibelungs" (1889); "History of Piano Literature" course by A. Rubinstein (1889); "Russian romance" (St. Petersburg, 1896). In 1896 - 1904 Cui was the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch, and in 1904 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Musical Society. - Cui's writings on military engineering: "A short textbook of field fortification" (7 editions); "Travel notes of an engineering officer in the theater of war in Europe in Turkey" ("Engineering Journal"); "Attack and defense of modern fortresses" ("Military Collection", 1881); "Belgium, Antwerp and Brialmont" (1882); "Experience of rational determination of the size of the fortress garrison" ("Engineering Journal"); "The role of long-term fortification in the defense of states" ("Course Nick. Engineering Academy"); "A Brief Historical Sketch of Long-Term Fortification" (1889); "Textbook of fortification for infantry cadet schools" (1892); "A few words about modern fortification fermentation" (1892). - See V. Stasov "Biographical sketch" ("Artist", 1894, No. 34); S. Kruglikov "William Ratcliff" (ibid.); N. Findeisen "Bibliographic index of Cui's musical works and critical articles" (1894); "C. Cui. Esquisse critique par la C-tesse de Mercy Argenteau" (II, 1888; the only comprehensive work on Cui); P. Weimarn "Caesar Cui as a Romansist" (St. Petersburg, 1896); Kontyaev "Piano works of Cui" (St. Petersburg, 1895). Grigory Timofeev.

on the topic: "Caesar Antonovich Cui"

Introduction

1. Baby and youth C. A. Cui. First encounter with music

2. The birth of the "Mighty Handful"

3. C. A. Cui - composer

3.2 Acquaintance with Franz Liszt

3.3 Recognition abroad. Opera Flibuster, 1894, Paris

3.4 Chamber music in the composer's work. romances

4. Cui - writer-critic

5. Children's theme in the work of Ts. A. Cui

6. Last years of the composer

7. Production of Cui's opera "Puss in Boots" today, Samara

Conclusion

Application

Bibliography

Introduction

When you get acquainted with the work and personality of the composer Ts. A. Cui, you involuntarily ask yourself the question: “Either he is talented from God, and the name that determines his whole life, or talented ancestors endowed the future composer with special qualities that opened a star in the composer's sky in Russia.”

An interesting fact from the life of the composer's studies is also connected with the name: “Ostrogradsky,” the composer recalls, “is going to give me 9 [according to the 12-point system. - A.N.]. Suddenly, my comrade Struve (later the builder of the Liteiny Bridge), as if by some intuition, said: "Forgive me, Your Excellency, because his name is Caesar." - "Caesar? Are you the namesake of the great Julius Caesar? Ostrogradsky stood up, gave me a deep bow and put 12. Later, already at the exam, Cui answered albeit smartly, but not exactly, but was again rated Ostrogradsky with the highest score. After the exam, he told Cui: “Write to your parents thank you letter for calling you Caesar, otherwise you wouldn’t have 12 points.”

Caesar Antonovich Cui - Russian composer, music critic, active propagandist of the ideas and creativity of the "Mighty Handful", a prominent scientist in the field of fortification, an engineer-general. He made a significant contribution to the development of national musical culture and military science. Cui's musical heritage is extremely extensive and varied: 14 operas (of which 4 are for children), several hundred romances, orchestral, choral, ensemble works, and piano compositions. He is the author of over 700 musical critical works. His music bears the features of French elegance and clarity of style, Slavic sincerity, flight of thought and depth of feeling. Cui's talent is more lyrical than dramatic, although he often achieves a significant power of tragedy in his operas; He is especially good at female characters. Power, grandiosity are alien to his music. Everything rough, tasteless, banal is hateful to him. He carefully finishes his compositions and is more inclined towards miniature than to broad constructions, to variational form than to sonata. So, let's begin…

1. Childhood and youth Ts. A. Cui. First encounter with music

Caesar Antonovich Cui was born on January 6, 1835 in the Lithuanian city of Vilna in the family of a local gymnasium teacher, a native of France. His father, Anton Leonardovich Cui, served in the Napoleonic army. Wounded in the Patriotic War of 1812, he remains in Russia. In the Lithuanian city of Vilna, A. L. Cui marries Yulia Gutsevich, who comes from a poor noble family. Caesar was the youngest and late child of five children and the most beloved. Caesar lost his mother early, who was largely replaced by his father and sister. My father was a very gifted person. He enjoyed playing the piano and organ and composed a little. In Vilna he served as an organist in one of the city's churches.

About the parental influence on the formation of the composer's personality, V.V. Stasov, Cui's ally in his activities in the Mighty Handful, wrote as follows: Western Europe through the father; deep sincerity, cordiality, the beauty of spiritual sensations of the Lithuanian nationality, so close to everything Slavic and so related to it, fill the second half of Cui's spiritual nature and, of course, were brought there by his mother.

At the age of 6-7, Cui was already picking up the melodies of military marches coming from the street. Caesar received his first piano lessons at the age of 10 from his older sister, then studied with private teachers, in particular, with the violinist Dio. At his piano lessons, fantasies from four-handed operas popular at that time were played out. Ibid young composer learned to read from a sheet. But the lack of consistency, work on the technique of playing in the classroom did not contribute to the development of pianistic skills. Dio would later play a part in the boy's further education.

The music of Frederic Chopin had an immeasurably great influence on Caesar, the love for which he retained until the end of his life. The works of the great Polish composer captured the boy, especially his mazurkas, with their poetry and romantic passion.

Eventually music lessons Caesar developed an interest in composing music. At the age of 14, the first play appeared - a mazurka in G minor, as a response of a young soul to a sad event: the history teacher of the gymnasium, a colleague of Cui's father, died. “This is a good sign in a boy - music composed not at the request of the head, but at the heart, at the strong insistence of flaring nerves and unraveling feelings,” wrote V.V. Stasov. - All the best music of Cui subsequently was exactly of this very breed: not composed, but created. This was followed by nocturnes, songs, mazurkas, romances without words, and even "Overture or something like that." In childishly naive works, the influence of his beloved Chopin was felt. These first opuses nevertheless interested one of Cui's teachers - Dio, who considered it necessary to show them to the largest and most famous authority in Vilna - Stanislav Moniuszko.

The activities of this outstanding Polish composer, a younger contemporary of Chopin, left a deep mark on the history of musical culture. He is known to the whole world as the founder of the Polish National Opera, the creator of the first national orchestral compositions.

Moniuszko immediately appreciated the boy's talent and began to study with him for free on music theory, counterpoint to composition. In total, Cui studied with Moniuszko for 7 months, but the lessons great artist, his very personality was remembered for a lifetime. But the time came to choose a profession and the lessons stopped. Father wanted Caesar to receive a specialty that would allow him to take a firm position in society, and only military service could give the young man financial independence. Caesar did not differ in good health, he was a silent, somewhat withdrawn child. As a child, in addition to music, he loved to draw, and he was best at pen drawings. In the gymnasium, Cui did not show much success, with the exception of those subjects where it was necessary to draw and draw. The boy spoke not only Russian and French, but could speak both Lithuanian and Polish. Nevertheless, Caesar did not finish the gymnasium, since he had to go to St. Petersburg in order to have time to prepare for admission to the Main Engineering School. The childhood of Caesar Cui (1850) ended with his departure for St. Petersburg.

On September 20, 1851, a 16-year-old youth became a conductor at the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg. Founded in 1819, this educational institution became a forge of engineering personnel for the Russian, later Soviet Army. The pupils of the school were writers F. M. Dostoevsky and D. V. Grigorovich, physiologist I. M. Sechenov, electrical engineer N. P. Yablochkov. From the moment of its foundation, the school was located in the Mikhailovsky Castle, later called Engineering, the former residence of Paul 1. The castle is located almost in the very center of St. Petersburg.

During his studies, Cui first met with opera. On the imperial stage in St. Petersburg there were two opera troupes - Russian and Italian. Despite the fact that the great operas of M. I. Glinka had already been staged: “A Life for the Tsar”, “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, the first opera by A. S. Dargomyzhsky “Esmeralda”, it is important to recognize that Russian opera was in a deplorable state. Financing and government support was entirely on the side of the Italian school.

With several like-minded comrades, Cui becomes a regular at the Bolshoi Theater. A whole world of great art then began to open before the young man: the works of G. Rossini, V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, J. Meirber, V. Ober, C. Gounod, A. Thomas. Of course, it was not easy for Cui to understand the merits of this or that work. The music performed by excellent singers, the choir, the orchestra, the rich artistic design of the performances, the festive solemn atmosphere of the theater itself - all this was new to him, everything seemed significant and beautiful. His impressions, comprehended by a sharp, inquisitive mind, gave subsequently rich food for the formation of Cui as a critic and composer.

However, neither Caesar's growing interest in music, nor impressions from performances at the Bolshoi Theater, nor playing music on weekends distracted him from his studies. Already at this time, the ability to simultaneously combine heterogeneous activities, such as military affairs and music, began to gradually form.

In 1855, at the age of 20, Caesar Cui successfully graduated from the Engineering School, and on June 11 he was promoted to field engineer as an ensign "with leaving at the school to continue the course of science in the lower officer class." Excellent physical training, excellent knowledge of military affairs, the basics of fortification were acquired during the years of study at the school.

From that time began a new period in the life of Caesar. Now he could live in a private apartment, and not in a school. And most importantly, all free time he began to give his favorite thing - music.

2. The birth of the "Mighty Handful"

In 1855, Cui entered the Nikolaev Academy of Engineering, settling with his older brother, the artist Napoleon Antonovich (the difference is 13 years). They lived modestly, with the accumulated money they bought notes and copies of the paintings they liked. The music draws Cui more and more. In addition to opera, he attends symphony and chamber concerts, listens to famous Russian and foreign musicians.

And one day a fateful event happened, an acquaintance with Mily Alekseevich Balakirev. “A chance brought me to him,” Cui recalled, “at one of the quartet evenings with the then inspector of the university, Fitzthum von Ekstedt, a passionate lover of chamber music and a good violist. We got into a conversation, he told me about Glinka, whom I did not know at all, I about Monyushko, whom he did not know; we soon became friends and saw each other every day for two or three years. This acquaintance was significant not only for Caesar Cui, but also for Russian music: the emergence of the core of the future circle of young Russian composers. According to Stasov, “Cui brought to his share only his nascent talent, his love for music, while Balakirev brought, in addition to his talent and love for music, his much further developed knowledge, his broad and bold look, his restless and insightful analysis of everything that exists in music."

native Nizhny Novgorod, who briefly studied at the Kazan University at the Faculty of Mathematics, he became a professional musician through persistent self-education. In 1855, Balakirev met Glinka, and for 4 years before the great master's departure abroad he met with him, played his compositions to him, talked with him about music. This is how Glinka said about Balakirev: "... In the first Balakirev, I found views that are so close to mine in everything that concerns music." At the same time, the young musician met A.S. Dargomyzhsky, A.N. Serov, V.V. and D.V. Stasovs and other famous figures of Russian culture.

According to V. V. Stasov, “Balakirev was the born head of the school. An inexorable striving forward, an indefatigable thirst for knowledge of everything still unknown in music, the ability to master others and direct them to the desired goal ... - everything in him combined to become a true leader of young Russian musicians. These are just a few words about the talent of the new comrade Caesar Cui. Soon Balakirev introduces his friend to Alexander Nikolaevich Serov, who at that time launched a stormy musical and critical activity (the operas Judith, Rogneda, and Enemy Power, which brought Serov composer fame). Serov responded very warmly and saw extraordinary talent Cui: “In the style of his writings, the “Slavic” character is already very clearly visible and serves as a guarantee of great originality.”

Caesar liked to come to Serov; he learned for himself a lot of new and interesting things, rethinking his former views, which now seemed to him naive or even erroneous.

During the period of communication with Serov, Cui wrote about deepening his musical knowledge; “Musical (and indeed any) understanding is a ladder of countless steps. He who stands on a high step can go down to the lower one whenever he pleases, can fully appreciate the polka, can also fall in love with it, if true beauties are contained in it; but, alas, for those standing below, the top is inaccessible until he wins it with his own labor, forming himself technically and aesthetically especially (this is not my comparison, it is Serov)”.

In 1856, the idea of ​​Cui's first opera "Castle Neuhausen" dates back to the plot of the story by A. A. Bestuzhev Marlinsky, the libretto was written by V. Krylov. But the plot was successfully rejected by Balakirev as untenable and completely out of touch with life. The lack of composing experience also had an effect.

In the summer of 1856, at one of the musical evenings, Cui met Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky, an outstanding composer, friend and follower of Glinka. In 1855, he completed work on the opera "Mermaid" based on the plot of the poem of the same name by A. S. Pushkin. Developing the traditions of his teacher, Dargomyzhsky created new type operas - folk drama, in the center of which is the fate of a simple peasant girl. The work, dedicated to the personal drama of a common man, was an innovative work in Russian opera music.

Balakirev, - noted Stasov, - became Cui's mentor in terms of what was created for the orchestra and piano, Dargomyzhsky - in terms of what was created for the voice ... was for Cui a great initiator in the world of musical expression, drama, feeling - by means of the human voice.

June 11, 1857 was at the end of full course Sciences, he was expelled from the Academy for active service, leaving the school as a tutor in topography. On June 23, "according to the examination for excellent achievements in the sciences," he was promoted to lieutenant. From that time on, Cui's laborious pedagogical and scientific activity began at the school, and then at the academy, which required great labor and effort from him and continued almost until the end of his life.

At the end of June, Cui left for practice in the Novgorod region, near Valdai. Here, in peace, he began to orchestrate his new opera "The Prisoner of the Caucasus". I read a lot. In particular, I read "Childhood and adolescence" quite young lion Tolstoy, his "Sevastopol stories". Get acquainted with the work of Bach.

In December of the same year, at one of the musical evenings in the house of A. S. Dargomyzhsky in December 1857, Cui met a young officer, an eighteen-year-old boy who served in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. It was Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. Gifted musically and pianistically, he began to compose unpretentious pieces for the piano already in childhood.

Soon Cui introduced Mussorgsky to Mily Alekseevich Balakirev, who soon began to study composition with Mussorgsky. Gradually, this acquaintance grew into friendship, which was strengthened by the ever-growing desire of young musicians to continue the great work of Glinka, to create works that are national in content and means of musical expression, truthfully reflecting the life of their native people, understandable and close to them. Actually, the life of the future of the "New Russian Music School" begins from this period. Meetings of friends regularly took place both at Balakirev's and at Dargomyzhsky's, and sometimes at Cui's. Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov (art critic, musicologist, historian, archaeologist) took an active part in these meetings. Late 50s - present. The 60s is a time of amazing discoveries for each of the members of the Balakirev circle. Cui wrote: “Since there was nowhere to study then (there was no conservatory), our self-education began. It consisted in the fact that we replayed everything written by the largest composers, and every work was subjected to comprehensive criticism and analysis of its technical and creative side. We were young and our judgments were harsh. We treated Mozart and Mendelssohn with great disrespect, opposing the latter to Schumann, who was then ignored by everyone. They were strongly fond of Liszt and Berlioz. They idolized Chopin and Glinka…”. No scholasticism, as it was not like studying at the conservatories of Europe. I had to figure everything out on my own. To learn in the process of creating works, solving immediately great artistic problems...”.

As already mentioned earlier in 1857, Cui began work on the opera Prisoner of the Caucasus. The libretto written by Viktor Krylov was based on the poem of the same name by A. S. Pushkin.

In the early 60s, the formation of the Balakirev circle was completed: in 1861, Balakirev, Cui and Mussorgsky met with the young graduate of the Naval Corps Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and in 1862 the doctor of medicine, adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry of the Medical and Surgical Academy Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin.

In love with Glinka's music, the author of several pieces and arrangements, after the very first meetings he was simply fascinated by Balakirev and his comrades. Balakirev immediately gave urgent advice that the new student should immediately begin composing the symphony.

Unlike the young Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin met the Balakirevites as a fully formed mature person (autumn 1862). In 1858, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, after which he improved his knowledge in Europe. However, by this time Borodin, musical talent which manifested itself in childhood, was already the author of several chamber-instrumental works, a number of pieces for piano and romances written in the style of Russian folk songs. In 1887, Balakirev wrote to Stasov: “Our acquaintance was for him ... important: before meeting me, he considered himself an amateur and did not attach importance to his exercises in composing - and it seems to me that, in all likelihood, I was the first to tell him that his real business is composing.

Already at the beginning of the 60s, a clear division of zones of influence between the "big" and "small" Balakirevites developed among the members of the circle. According to Rimsky-Korsakov, who returned from a round-the-world trip, he can be characterized as follows: “Cui is a great master of vocal and opera, Balakirev was considered a master of symphony, form and orchestration. Thus, they complemented each other, but felt mature and big, while Borodin, Mussorgsky and - we were immature and small ... ”The works created during this period were sometimes imperfect, sometimes naive. But the most important thing is that they reflected the formation of the traditions of the "New Russian Music School".

Young composers actively were looking for mine unbeaten path V AndWithart, their original facilities expressiveness, my sound PAliter, polished skill. They aware huge personal answerTvein behind fate Russian music, proving everyone their creativity, - composing, performing, public, educational, pedAgogic, - What They authentic heirs And successors great And welldfoot affairs Glinka And Dargomyzhsky, their real students.

The "doors" of the circle have always been open to everyone who shared the views and ideals of the founders of the "New Russian Music School". The Balakirev composers sought in their works to reflect the history of the Russian people, full of dramatic collisions, the greatest victories, to convey the feelings of a common man, his aspirations. Recalling the time of the formation of the school, Caesar Antonovich Cui recalled: “We recognized the equality of music with the text. We found that musical forms should correspond to poetic forms and should not distort them, and therefore the repetition of words, verses, and even more so insertions are unacceptable ... Opera forms are the most free and diverse, starting with recitative, most often melodic, and songs with repeating stanzas and ending with numbers with a wide symphonic development. It all depends on the plot, the layout of the libretto.” The uniqueness of the New Russian School was that it vividly and actively manifested the individuality and talent of each of the participants, despite the strong influence of Balakirev.

3. C. A. Cui-composer. Muse Cui

3.1 Operas

Opera "Prisoner of the Caucasus"

As mentioned earlier, Cui's first opera "Prisoner of the Caucasus" was composed in 1857-1858, and revised by the author in 1881-1882. The libretto was written by V. Krylov based on the poem of the same name by A. Pushkin. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg, the Mariinsky Theatre, on February 4, 1883, conducted by E. Napravnik.

On October 19, 1858, an important change took place in Cui's personal life - on this day he married Malvina Rafailovna Bamberg, the daughter of a doctor, whose doctor's daughter had recently moved to St. Petersburg. The acquaintance took place in the house of Dargomyzhsky, from whom she took singing lessons. Malvina had a good voice and dreamed of singing on the imperial stage. Cui liked her musicality, her ability to "bright recitation." Along with the works of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and other composers, Malvina learned individual numbers from the opera Prisoner of the Caucasus, which gave the young man great pleasure.

Despite the ardent passion that seized Caesar and gave him many joyful days, he did not change in anything his usual prudence, so characteristic of him from the very first years of his life in St. Petersburg. The wedding was modest, housing was found quickly, but deliberately.

Opera "Son of the Mandarin"

Having finished work on the two-act "Prisoner of the Caucasus", Cui conceived a small comic opera "The Son of the Mandarin" in one act on the then fashionable Chinese plot. Cui dedicated this production to his wife. The libretto was written by Krylov. On the professional stage, this comic opera was staged only in 1878 at the St. Petersburg Club of Artists and for a long time became one of Cui's most repertoire stage works.

In the performance of the opera, a harp was used in the male and female parts, giving the music the necessary oriental flavor, stylized, and not authentic. By the way, on the urgent advice of Balakirev.

Opera "William Ratcliffe", 1869

In 1861, Cui set about composing a new opera, William Ratcliff, based on the plot of the early Heinrich Heine, which became a landmark event not only for Caesar Antonovich, but for the entire New Russian School of Music. The libretto was written by V. Krylov.

“I stopped on this plot because I liked its fantastic nature, the indefinite, but passionate, fatally influenced character of the hero himself, I was fascinated by Heine’s talent and Pleshcheev’s excellent translation (beautiful verse always seduced me and had an undeniable influence on my music)”, - Cui wrote about the choice of plot. The composer has been writing this opera for seven years. The idea and principles of dramaturgy become clear to the views of Cui and the Mighty Handful on operatic art in general. Mussorgsky wrote to Cui: "Ratcliff" is not only yours, but also ours. He crawled out of your artistic womb before our eyes, grew up, got stronger, and now he is emerging into people before our very eyes, and has never betrayed our expectations. How can you not love such a sweet and good creature.

However, in the history of Russian opera art, this opera did not take the place it predicted. True, for their time, many features were innovative: the desire for a truthful transfer of emotional experiences, concreteness in the depiction of some everyday scenes, an ariose-declamatory manner of speech. The premiere took place in St. Petersburg, the Mariinsky Theater, on February 14, 1869, under the direction of E. Napravnik, which was a success.

Opera Angelo, 1876

After staging William Ratcliff at the Mariinsky Stage, Cui immediately began to look for a plot for his new opera. On the advice of Stasov, Caesar Antonovich settled on Angelo, a drama by Victor Hugo, whose work he met in Vilna.

The drama of V. Hugo attracted by the intensity of passions, enormous tension, dramatic situations. The libretto was written by the poet and playwright V.P. Burenina.

The plot of the opera, in four acts, gave the composer the opportunity to reveal in music the eternal questions of life: love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal, cruelty and kindness. The events of the opera are connected with the struggle of the oppressed people for freedom and independence against the tyrant Angelo.

And on February 1, 1876, the premiere took place as a benefit performance by the then famous Russian singer I. A. Melnikov. The artists and the composer were repeatedly called to the stage, warmly welcomed by the public.

3.2 Acquaintance with Franz Liszt

In April 1873, when work on Angelo was in full swing, Cui met Franz Liszt in absentia. Caesar Antonovich sent a letter to the great Hungarian musician and the clavier "William Ratcliffe" through his friend and publisher V. V. Bessel.

Having received the clavier "William Ratcliff" from Cui, Liszt literally a month later, in May 1873, wrote a letter to Caesar Antonovich, in which he praised the opera; “This is a work of a master that deserves attention, fame and success, both in terms of wealth and originality of thoughts, and in terms of mastery of form.”

The personality and activity of Liszt aroused special respect and reverence among all Balakirevians. Having risen to the heights of musical art, he did not turn into an infallible master and an omniscient judge, but remained a person open to everything new and original in music, actively helping musicians from different countries. Among his students were such outstanding Russian artists as Vera Timanova and Alexander Siloti, cousin of S. V. Rachmaninov). Liszt studied for free with his students.

During his triumphant tour in Russia in the 1940s, Liszt, having become friends with Glinka, was struck by the scale of the Russian composer's talent. True, he was no less struck by the dislike for Glinka on the part of representatives of official circles. At that time, it was believed in Europe that Russian professional music worthy of "enlightened" attention did not exist. The first meeting of the two musicians took place in Weimar in the summer of 1876, when Cui traveled to Germany to listen to Wagner's operas in Bayreuth. The second meeting took place in 1880.

3.3 Recognition abroad. Opera Flibuster, 1894, Paris

Since the late 70s, Cui began to regularly publish his articles on the work of Russian composers in several French newspapers, in particular in the Revue et Gasette musicale de Paris*. Publications in this newspaper served as the basis for the book "La Musique en Ruseie" ("Music in Russia"), published in French by the Parisian publishing house of G. Fischbacher and dedicated to F. Liszt.

In this book, Cui summarized his views on Russian music, told French readers about Russian folk songs, about the works of Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Serov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky and some other composers. Cui's book was the first work by a Russian author from which foreign readers could obtain information about contemporary Russian music. A number of Cui's thoughts have not lost their significance to this day. In particular, he argued that “folk songs, whether we consider their text or their music, will always be of great importance for everyone. educated person. They express the creative forces of an entire nation.”

And once Caesar Antonovich received a letter from Belgium from Countess de Mercy-Argento, well-known in European musical circles, with a request to send her materials on Russian music. Caesar Antonovich immediately answered the Belgian countess and sent her his book Music in Russia. From that moment began their correspondence acquaintance, which soon turned into a wonderful friendship.

Representative of one of the most aristocratic families, Louise-Maria de Mercy-Argento (nee Princess de Caraman-Chime) was amazing woman. Widely educated, multi-talented, she communicated with such outstanding personalities as Liszt and Gounod, Saint-Saens and Anton Rubinstein, Jean Richepin and many other famous representatives of European musical and literary and artistic circles.

A student of the famous Austrian pianist Sigismund Thalberg, Mercy-Argento played the piano beautifully. Having entered into correspondence with Cui (in nine years they wrote over 3,000 letters), Mercy-Argento perfectly mastered the Russian language. She translated into French the texts of Cui's operas (The Prisoner of the Caucasus, The Son of the Mandarin, William Ratcliffe and Angelo), Rimsky-Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov and The Snow Maiden, and many romances by composers of the New Russian School. etc.

On January 7, 1885, she organized a public concert in Liege, in which the works of Dargomyzhsky, Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as young composers Lyadov and Glazunov were performed. It was the first concert in Belgium, the program of which consisted entirely of Russian music. The success of the concert exceeded the most daring expectations, it paid back all the worries of Mercy-Argento a hundredfold. On February 28, 1886, the third concert took place in Liege, followed by a concert in Brussels. In just three years, in various cities in Belgium and Holland, she organized twelve Russian concerts.

In December 1885, thanks to Mercy-Argento, the premiere of Cui's Prisoner of the Caucasus, the first Russian opera staged in Belgium, took place in Liege. It was the operatic debut of the New Russian School abroad, by the way, very successful.

In the person of Louise, he found a most devoted friend and a wonderful, intelligent assistant. Cui frequented Mercy-Argento at the family castle, which had been rebuilt from the remains of much more ancient building, destroyed during Louis XIV. In harmony with the surrounding nature, Cui somehow calmed down by himself, obeying her charming and at the same time imperious beauty. In the castle of Argento, Cui created a number of his significant works, the suite “In Argento”, a wonderful vocal cycle based on poems by J. Richepin, a string quartet, two orchestral suites and, finally, the largest work of this period - the opera “Le Flibustier”, “By the Sea ".

In the same year in Paris, Fischbacher's publishing house published Mercy-Argento's book Caesar Cui. Critical notes”, 4-year work. It was the first and still the only detailed monograph on Cui's work and a kind of gift to the composer before the end of her life caused by illness. In October 1889, she became seriously ill (she was diagnosed with cancer, the last stage). Merci-Argento died on October 27, 1890 in St. Petersburg: Caesar Antonovich brought her here, completely sick and exhausted, from Belgium. Cui was so shocked by the untimely loss of a faithful friend that for a long time he could not compose at all. Louise was, in his confession, the greatest happiness, and now the greatest misfortune of his life.

Opera Flibuster, 1894

As mentioned earlier, in 1888, in the castle of Argento, Cui began composing a new opera, Flibuster, after almost a 12-year break. Important As early as 1877, he wrote of his desire to create an opera on "a plot that is heartfelt, warm, but without gut-wrenching, like Ratcliffe and Angelo, a plot more lyrical than dramatic, for the sake of broader and rounded singing; a plot with ensembles intelligently motivated; the plot is not Russian.

Soon Cui settled on the lyrical comedy of the contemporary French poet J. Richepin. The action of "Filibuster" develops calmly and leisurely. Heroes of the work - simple people living in a small French town by the sea. The old Breton sailor François Legoez and his granddaughter Janik have been waiting for many years for the return of Pierre, Janik's fiancé, who went to sea as a boy. But day after day goes by, turning into months and years, and no news comes from Pierre. One day, a young sailor Jacquemain, Pierre's comrade, came to the house of Legoez, who also had not seen his friend for a long time and was sincerely convinced that he was dead. Legoez and Zhanik take Jacquemin for him. The girl in Jacquemin-Pierre happily finds her ideal lover, which she has long drawn in her imagination. In turn, Jacquemin also fell in love with Zhanique, but the sudden return of the real Pierre reveals Jacquemin's unwitting deceit. In anger, the old sailor kicks him out of his house, but soon he realizes that he acted unfairly and that Zhanik loves the young man. True nobility is also shown by Pierre, who understands that his bride loves Jacquemain and contributes to their happiness. Such, in brief, is the plot of the play that Cui served as the plot for the opera.

He wrote the music of the opera to the almost unchanged French text of Richepin's play, excluding only individual verses and including a small choral episode. Caesar Antonovich managed to complete Flibuster shortly before the onset of Mercy-Argento's illness, to which he dedicated the new opera.

It was the first opera by a Russian composer staged abroad - in Paris, on the stage of the Comic Theater, commissioned by its directorate. The premiere took place on January 22 (new style) 1894 on the stage of the Opéra-Comique.

The theater was full. The first performance of "Filibuster" was a great success and was accompanied by warm applause. Much in the opera was unusual: the modest furnishings of the house of an old Breton sailor, and the scenery, as the author intended.

The responses after the premiere were varied, but the very fact of staging Russian opera on the stage of the Parisian theater spoke of a significant increase in the authority and popularity of Russian music abroad. In Paris, Cui was elected a corresponding member of the "Institut de France" and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Legion of Honor. Two years later, the Royal Academy of Letters and Art of Belgium also began to consider him a member. And even earlier - in the late 1880s - early 1890s - Cui was elected an honorary member of several foreign musical societies. “All this is very nice,” the composer wrote in 1896, “but how much more pleasant it would be for me if at least one of my operas were staged in Moscow.”

3.4 Chamber music in the composer's work. romances

Even at the time of the birth of The Mighty Handful in 1857, the composer began to compose an overture for orchestra and several romances, in particular three romances Op. 3 (“Mystery”, “Sleep my young friend”, “So the soul breaks”) to the verses of Viktor Krylov. It was in the romance "The Secret" that the direction towards musical recitation manifested itself, which subsequently distinguished Cui's work.

The main area most relevant to the composer's talent is chamber music. The best thing about her is Cui's romances. Psychologically subtle, artistically finished romances to texts by A. S. Pushkin "Tsarskoye Selo Statue", "Burned Letter" - a lyrical monologue, A. N. Maikova - "Aeolian harps", "What in the stillness of night "," Exhausted by grief. He dedicated the romance “A Timid Confession” (op. 20 No. 2) to his daughter Lydia. All these are compositions of the 1890s, i.e. composer's maturity. Of considerable interest is the cycle of romances based on the verses of the French poet J. Ripshen, associated with Cui's perception of French culture.

When, at the beginning of the 20th century, Cui turned to the poetry of N. A. Nekrasov, he tried to write music for five fables by I. A. Krylov (1913) or respond to military events Russo-Japanese War vocal cycle "Echoes of War", then failed. The uncharacteristic nature of this kind of subject matter for the nature of his composer talent (and his ideological and aesthetic aspiration, which had changed by this time) prevented the creation of full-fledged compositions corresponding to the chosen theme.

The miniature as a form of utterance is also characteristic of Cui in the field of instrumental music, where the greatest place belongs to small works for the piano, on which the influence of Schumann's piano style is clearly felt (the 12 miniatures cycle, the Argento suite, etc.). Some of the piano cycles also received orchestral editions.

4. Cui-writer-critic

Of great importance is the literary heritage of Cui. The composer has evolved significantly in his musical and aesthetic views throughout his life, which affected the character of his critical activity. In publicistic speeches of the 60s, he expresses the views of his and his friends from the community of the "Mighty Handful" on the development of Russian music, revealing relations with foreign composers and especially emphasizing the sympathy for Schumann characteristic of the "Kuchkists", a great interest in Berlioz. He always warmly and quickly responds to the new compositions of his comrades, to the emerging collections of folk songs by M. A. Balakirev, A. I. Rubts and other phenomena of Russian musical culture. All this has an enduring historical value even now. By the beginning of the 1880s, Cui, however, was far from always in solidarity with other members of the circle. This was already felt in 1874 in his assessment of Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Noting the great talent of the composer, his outstanding importance in the history of Russian music, Cui at the same time sharply emphasized a number of shortcomings in musical style Mussorgsky: "Mussorgsky's inability to symphonic music", a tendency to exaggerate in declamatory expressiveness, pointing out shortcomings in harmonization, modulations, heaps of trifles that interfere, in his words, with "the integrity of the impression." From a number of Cui's articles of this period, it became clear that he did not understand the ideological and aesthetic orientation of either Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, or, somewhat later, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden. All this gave reason to write then to Stasov about the change in the orientation of Cui's views - from a representative of progress to a moderate liberalist.

And yet, among the heritage of the 1880s there are also many articles that are still of great interest and have not lost their relevance: “A few words about modern opera forms” - this contains prices and perhaps Cui’s controversial views on the specifics of music as an art, on the meaning of the speech beginning in the musical style; in the article "Artists and Reviewers" critic Cui expresses an opinion on the tasks and nature of musical criticism. “In addition to a versatile education,” Cui writes, “well-read, acquaintance with the world musical literature of all times, theoretical and, if possible, practical acquaintance with composer technique, he must be incorruptible, firm in his convictions, impartial ... Complete dispassion, bordering on indifference, is undesirable in criticism : it discolors it, deprives it of life and influence. Let the critic get carried away a little, enhance the colors, even if he is mistaken, but he is mistaken honestly, and without deviating from the basic principles of his views on art.

Of particular note is Cui's 1888 article “Results of the Russian Symphony Concertos. "Fathers and Sons", dedicated to the comparison of two different generations of Russian composers. Cui's sympathies were clearly on the side of the "fathers". In the younger generation, he criticizes the insufficient, from his point of view, attention to the essence of musical thematism and emphasizes the richness of the thematic ingenuity of composers of the older generation - Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and others. Of the “children”, he singles out only Glazunov in terms of the strength of his talent. Cui criticizes the composers of the new generation for their passion for harmonization, which swallowed up "everything else - musical thoughts, feelings, and expressiveness, they mix the simple with the banal ..." He reproaches them for the tendency of virtuosity, lack of individuality. Over the years, Cui, as a critic, became more tolerant of artistic trends in Russian music that were not associated with the New Russian School, which was caused by certain changes in his worldview, in a greater than before independence of critical judgments. .

So, in 1888, Cui wrote to Balakirev: “... I am already 53 years old, and with every year I feel how I gradually renounce all influences and personal sympathies. This is a gratifying feeling of moral complete freedom. I can be mistaken in my musical judgments, and this bothers me a little, if only my sincerity does not succumb to any extraneous influences that have nothing to do with music. Over the past years, many events have taken place in the life of the composer, painted in both light and dark colors, which he learned to endure stoically and even with a certain amount of irony to himself.

Cui sought to move away from "fractional criticism" (name of the author), that is, from the analysis of individual elements of the work, inheriting from Balakirev. He became convinced that it was necessary to refrain "from scoring, from comparing things that perform different tasks," but to evaluate "only how a given task is performed."

Cui's critical activity continued actively only until 1900. Then his speeches were episodic. From recent works two critical notes are interesting - a response to the manifestation of modernist tendencies in music (1917). This is "Hymn to Futurism" - a note-parody involving musical text and " Brief instruction how, without being a musician, to become a brilliant modern composer.

When studying the creative activity of Caesar Antonovich Cui, two editions are of great value: Selected Articles by Ts. A. Cui (L., 1952) and Selected Letters by Ts. A. Cui (L., 1955).

Abroad, a monograph about Cui in French was published in 1888 by the Belgian activist Countess de Mercy-Argento, one of the active propagandists of Russian music in the West.

5. Children's theme in the work of Ts. A. Cui

In his declining years, the composer managed to find a musical area for himself, where he managed to say a new word.

Resting in Yalta, Cui met Marina Stanislavovna Pol, who lived there, a specialist in the field of aesthetic education of children, who suggested that the composer write an opera for children. The creation of children's operas was then a new, unprecedented thing. Actually, at that time, the ideas of universal musical and aesthetic education of the younger generation, through the efforts of a few enthusiastic teachers, were just beginning to make their way.

"Snow Hero" - this is the name given to the new work of Cui, created on the text of Paul. The plot of this one-act opera-fairy tale is very simple and unpretentious. The action takes place in winter in a fairy-tale kingdom-state. Eleven swan princesses dance, throw snowballs at each other and hit the face of their Mother Queen who suddenly appeared. The angry Queen complains about the fate that sent her only daughters, and in her hearts asks God to give her a son instead of daughters. Suddenly, a fierce whirlwind swept the princesses away to no one knows where, and instead of them a son appeared, a real Snow Hero. The queen in tears asks him to find the missing daughters. In the second picture, according to custom, there is a hut on chicken legs on the stage. Unfortunate princesses live in it, who are waiting for a terrible fate - they must be eaten one by one by a terrible and insatiable three-headed Serpent. The snow hero fearlessly enters into battle with the monster and cuts off his heads one by one, after which he announces to the happy captives that he is their brother. The opera ends with the joyful chorus "Like a red sun in the sky."

In 1906, the clavier of The Snow Hero was published by the publishing house of P. I. Yurgenson. In connection with this event, the Russian Musical Newspaper noted in the bibliographic section that “there are many sweet and successful episodes in the music of the Snow Bogatyr. One can be quite glad that our serious composers also met the needs of the school. new job, especially when he listened to the opera performed by the court orchestra, the only permanent symphony ensemble in Russia at that time.

In 1911 he wrote the second children's opera. She became "Little Red Riding Hood", to the libretto by M. S. Paul, which was based on the fairy tale of Charles Perrault. In 1913, the clavier of Little Red Riding Hood saw the light of day.

Soon Cui also wrote a third children's opera, Puss in Boots, to a libretto by Paul tale of the same name Brothers Grimm. This opera was staged in Italy in the Roman theater of marionettes, the so-called "Theatre for the Little Ones". The dolls used in the performances were very large, almost half the height of a person. "Puss in Boots" Cui was a huge success with little Italians. 50 performances in a row were held in a crowded hall. In those years, Cui met Nadezhda Nikolaevna Dolomanova, a remarkable figure in the field of musical and aesthetic education of children and youth.

Dolomanova later became one of the founders of the Soviet system of general musical and aesthetic education. At that time, she taught music lessons not only in gymnasiums and boarding schools, but also among the children of workers. She taught choral singing to girls from the artel workshop of women's needlework, arranged concerts for children, etc.

It is noteworthy that, while composing children's music - operas and songs - Caesar Antonovich consciously sought to comprehend mental states and the child's psyche. At a time when art for children (in music, literature, painting) was essentially taking its first steps, Cui's approach was very valuable and progressive. In his children's works, as G. N. Timofeev rightly wrote, a well-known music critic, composer, “while retaining the individual features of his talent, is also new side. He managed to approach the psychology of the child's soul. Despite the sometimes far from simple texture and even harmonic sophistication, in the general character of the music he showed a lot of simplicity, tenderness, grace and that unconstrained humor that is always readily and easily caught by children. With these compositions, Cui enriched a very poor children's musical repertoire.

On the initiative of Dolomanova, Cui wrote his last, fourth children's opera in 1913, based on the plot of the popular Russian folk tale about Ivanushka the Fool. It just so happened that "Ivanushka the Fool" was composed in France, where the composer often spent the summer months. In Vichy Cui met twice with the famous French composer C. Saint-Saens, whom he met back in St. Petersburg in 1875. He was struck by the fact that at the age of 78, Saint-Saens performed well in public, and outwardly looked very young.

While working on Ivanushka the Fool, Cui wrote a number of other vocal and instrumental works, including Krylov's Five Fables for Voice and Piano (Op. 90) and the Violin Sonata (Op. 84). At the same time, the original vocal cycle "Musical Miniatures, Humoresques, Letters" (op. 87) was created. A vocal cycle of 24 poems (op. 86), vocal quartets, choral and piano works, children's songs, a cantata in memory of M. Yu. Lermontov - all these works were written by an almost 80-year-old composer in a short time and testify to his very high level of creativity.

“I haven’t lost my job yet. “Red Hat”, “Cat” and “Fool” are not devoid of some freshness. But still, I have already given everything I could, and I won’t say a new word, ”the composer wrote to Glazunov.

6. Last years of the composer

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Caesar Antonovich Cui(fr. César Cui, at birth Caesar-Veniamin Cui; January 6, Vilna - March 13, Petrograd) - Russian composer and music critic, member of the Mighty Handful and Belyaevsky Circle, professor of fortification, engineer-general (1906).

The composer's creative heritage is quite extensive: 14 operas, including The Son Mandarin (), William Ratcliff (based on Heinrich Heine,), Angelo (based on the plot drama Victor Hugo,), The Saracen (based on the plot of Alexandre Dumas -father, ), "The Captain's Daughter" (after A. S. Pushkin, ), 4 children's operas; works for orchestra, chamber instrumental ensembles, piano, violin, cello; choirs, vocal ensembles, romances (more than 250), distinguished by lyrical expressiveness, grace, subtlety of vocal recitation. Popular among them are “The Burnt Letter”, “The Tsarskoe Selo Statue” (lyrics by A. S. Pushkin), “Aeolian Harps” (lyrics by A. N. Maikov), etc.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ Piano, C. Cui, "Waltz"

✪ "Puss in Boots" best moments.

✪ Caesar Antonovich Cui prelude op.64 №16

✪ Ts.A.Kui. Eastern melody.

✪ Cesar Cui - Sonata for violin and piano

Subtitles

Biography

Born on January 6, 1835 in the city of Vilna (modern Vilnius). His father, Anton Leonardovich Cui, a native of France, served in the Napoleonic army. Wounded in 1812 near Smolensk during the Patriotic War of 1812, frostbitten, he did not return with the remnants of Napoleon's defeated troops to France, but remained forever in Russia. In Vilna, Anton Cui, who married Yulia Gutsevich, daughter of the famous Lithuanian architect Laurynas Gutsevichius, taught French at the local gymnasium. Anton Cui communicated with his father in French, with other family members in Lithuanian or Polish, and from the age of 5 he spoke Russian with his schoolboy brothers. Caesar's older brother, Alexander (1824-1909), later became a well-known architect.

At the age of 5, Cui was already playing on the piano the melody of a military march he had heard. At the age of ten, his sister began to teach him to play the piano; then his teachers were Herman and the violinist Dio. While studying at the Vilna gymnasium, Cui, under the influence of Chopin's mazurkas, who remained forever his favorite composer, composed a mazurka on the death of one teacher. Moniuszko, then living in Vilna, offered to give the talented young man free lessons in harmony, which, however, lasted only seven months.

Cui was the first among Russian engineers to propose the use of armored turrets in land fortresses. He acquired a great and honorable reputation as a professor of fortification and as the author of outstanding works on this subject. He was invited to give lectures on fortification to the heir to the throne, the future Emperor Nicholas II, as well as several grand dukes. In 1904, Ts. A. Kui was promoted to the rank of engineer-general.

Cui’s earliest romances were written around 1850 (“6 Polish Songs”, published in Moscow, in 1901), but his composing activity began to develop seriously only after he graduated from the academy (see the memoirs of Comrade Cui, playwright V. A. Krylov , "Historical Bulletin", 1894, II). On the texts of Krylov, romances were written: “The Secret” and “Sleep, my friend”, on the words of Koltsov - the duet “So the soul is torn”. Of great importance in the development of Cui's talent was friendship with Balakirev (1857), who in the first period of Cui's work was his adviser, critic, teacher and partly collaborator (mainly in terms of orchestration, which forever remained the most vulnerable side of Cui's texture), and a close acquaintance with his circle: Mussorgsky (1857), Rimsky-Korsakov (1861) and Borodin (1864), as well as with Dargomyzhsky (1857), who had a great influence on the development of Cui's vocal style.

On October 19, 1858, Cui married Malvina Rafailovna Bamberg, a student of Dargomyzhsky. The orchestral scherzo F-dur is dedicated to her, with the main theme, B, A, B, E, G (the letters of her last name) and the persistent holding of notes C, C (Cesar Cui) - an idea clearly inspired by Schumann, who generally had a great influence on Cui . The performance of this scherzo in St. Petersburg in a symphony concert of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (December 14, 1859) was Cui's public debut as a composer. By the same time, two piano scherzos in C-dur and gis-moll and the first experience in operatic form: two acts of the opera Prisoner of the Caucasus (1857-1858), later converted into a three-act opera and staged in 1883 on stage in St. Petersburg and Moscow . At the same time, a one-act comic opera in the light genre The Son of the Mandarin (1859) was written, staged at Cui's home performance with the participation of the author himself, his wife and Mussorgsky, and publicly at the Artists' Club in St. Petersburg (1878).

Caesar Cui participated in the Belyaevsky circle. In 1896-1904, Cui was the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch, and in 1904 he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Musical Society.

In Kharkiv, a street is named after Caesar Cui.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd

• 1867-1868 - Sinebryukhova's apartment building - Gagarinskaya embankment, 16, apt. eleven
• 1891 - 03/26/1918 - Stepanov's profitable house - embankment of the Fontanka River, 38.

Music

Reformatory undertakings in the field of dramatic music, partly under the influence of Dargomyzhsky, in contrast to the conventions and banalities of Italian opera, were expressed in the opera William Ratcliff (based on the plot of Heine), begun (in 1861) even earlier than The Stone Guest. The unity of music and text, the careful development of vocal parts, the use in them not so much of the cantilena (still appearing where the text requires), but of melodic, melodious recitative, the interpretation of the choir as an expression of the life of the masses, the symphony of orchestral accompaniment - all these features, in connection with the virtues of music, beautiful, elegant and original (especially in harmony) made Ratcliff a new stage in the development of Russian opera, although the music of Ratcliff does not have a national imprint. The weakest side of the Ratcliffe score was the orchestration. The significance of Ratcliff, staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1869), was not appreciated by the public, perhaps due to the sloppy performance, against which the author himself protested (by a letter to the editors of St. Petersburg Vedomosti), asking the public not to attend performances of his opera (on Ratcliff, see Rimsky-Korsakov's article in Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti on February 14, 1869, and in the posthumous edition of his articles). Ratcliff reappeared in the repertoire only 30 years later (on a private stage in Moscow). A similar fate befell Angelo (1871-1875, based on the plot of V. Hugo), where the same operatic principles were fully completed. Staged at the Mariinsky Theater (1876), this opera did not stay in the repertoire and was renewed for only a few performances on the same stage in 1910, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the composer's work. Angelo was more successful in Moscow (Bolshoi Theatre, 1901). Mlada (act 1; see Borodin) belongs to the same time (1872). Next to "Angelo" in terms of artistic completeness and significance of music, one can put the opera "Flibustier" (Russian translation - "By the Sea"), written (1888-1889) to the text of Jean Richepin and walking, without much success, only in Paris, on stage Opera Comique (1894). In music, her French text is interpreted with the same truthful expressiveness as Russian - in Cui's Russian operas. In other works of dramatic music: "The Saracen" (on the plot "Charles VII with his vassals" by A. Dumas, op. 1896-1898; Mariinsky Theater, 1899); "A Feast in the Time of Plague" (op. 1900; performed in St. Petersburg and Moscow); "M-lle Fifi" (op. 1900, on the subject of Maupassant; performed in Moscow and Petrograd); Mateo Falcone (op. 1901, after Mérimée and Zhukovsky, performed in Moscow) and The Captain's Daughter (op. 1907-1909, Mariinsky Theatre, 1911; in Moscow, 1913) Cui, without drastically changing his previous operatic principles, gives away (partly depending on the text ) a clear preference for cantilena.

Operas for children should be singled out in a separate rubric: “The Snow Bogatyr” (); "Little Red Riding Hood " (); "Puss in Boots " (); "Ivan the Fool " (). In them, as in his children's songs, Cui showed a lot of simplicity, tenderness, grace, wit.

After the operas, Cui's romances (about 400) are of the greatest artistic importance, in which he abandoned the couplet form and the repetition of the text, which always finds true expression both in the vocal part, the melody, remarkable for its beauty and masterful recitation, and accompanied by a rich harmony and excellent piano sonority. The choice of texts for romances is made with great taste. For the most part they are purely lyrical - the area closest to Cui's talent; he achieves in it not so much the strength of passion, but the warmth and sincerity of feeling, not so much the breadth of scope, but the elegance and careful finishing of details. Sometimes, in a few bars of a short text, Cui gives a whole psychological picture. Among Cui's romances there are narrative, descriptive, and humorous ones. In the later period of Cui's work, he strives to publish romances in the form of collections of poems by the same poet (Rishpen, Pushkin, Nekrasov, Count A. K. Tolstoy).

About 70 more choirs and 2 cantatas belong to vocal music: 1) “In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty” (1913) and 2) “Your verse” (words by I. Grinevskaya), in memory of Lermontov. In instrumental music - for the orchestra, string quartet and for individual instruments - Cui is not so typical, but in this area he wrote: 4 suites (one of them - 4 - is dedicated to M-me Mercy d'Argenteau, Cui's great friend, for she did a lot of distribution of whose works in France and Belgium), 2 scherzos, a tarantella (there is a brilliant piano transcription by F. Liszt), "Marche solennelle" and a waltz (op. 65). Then there are 3 string quartets, many pieces for piano, violin and cello. In total published (until 1915) 92 Cui's opus'a; this number does not include operas and other works (over 10), by the way, the end of the 1st scene in Dargomyzhsky's Stone Guest (written according to the last will of the latter).

Cui's talent is more lyrical than dramatic, although he often achieves a significant power of tragedy in his operas; He is especially good at female characters. Power, grandiosity are alien to his music. Everything rough, tasteless or banal is hateful to him. He carefully finishes his compositions and is more inclined towards miniature than to broad constructions, to variational form than to sonata. He is an inexhaustible melodist, an inventive harmonist to the point of sophistication; he is less diverse in rhythm, rarely resorts to contrapuntal combinations and is not quite fluent in modern orchestral means. His music, bearing the features of French elegance and clarity of style, Slavic sincerity, flight of thought and depth of feeling, is devoid, with few exceptions, of a specially Russian character.

Musical critic

Started in 1864 (St. Petersburg Vedomosti) and continued until 1900 (News), Cui's musical-critical activity was of great importance in the history of the musical development of Russia. The militant, progressive character (especially in the earlier period), the fiery propaganda of Glinka and the "new Russian musical school", literary brilliance, wit created for him, as a critic, a huge influence. He also promoted Russian music abroad, contributing to the French press and publishing his articles from Revue et gazette musicale (1878-1880) as a separate book, La musique en Russie (P., 1880). Cui's extreme hobbies include his belittling of the classics (Mozart, Mendelssohn) and a negative attitude towards Richard Wagner. Separately published by him: "The Ring of the Nibelungs" (1889); "History of Piano Literature" course by A. Rubinstein (1889); "Russian Romance" (St. Petersburg, 1896).

S acted as a music critic, defending the principles of realism and folk in music, promoting the work of M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky and young representatives of the New Russian School, as well as innovative trends in foreign music. As a critic, he often published devastating articles on the work of Tchaikovsky. Opera Cui at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg) reflected the aesthetic attitudes of The Mighty Handful. At the same time, Cui, as a critic, is characterized by romantic conventionality, stilted images, which are characteristic of his work in the future. Cui's systematic musical-critical activity continued until the early 1900s.

Works on fortification

Cui - the author of major scientific works on fortification, created a fortification course, which he read at the Nikolaev Engineering, Mikhailovskaya Artillery Academies and at the Academy of the General Staff. He was the first among Russian military engineers to propose the use of armored turrets in land fortresses.

Cui's writings on military engineering: "A short textbook of field fortification" (7 editions); "Travel notes of an engineering officer in the theater of war in European Turkey" ("Engineering Magazine"); "Attack and defense of modern fortresses" ("Military Collection", 1881); "Belgium, Antwerp and Brialmont" (1882); "Experience of rational determination of the size of the fortress garrison" ("Engineering Journal"); "The role of long-term fortification in the defense of states" ("Course Nick. Engineering Academy"); "A Brief Historical Sketch of Long-Term Fortification" (1889); "Textbook of fortification for infantry cadet schools" (1892); "A Few Words on Modern Fortification Fermentation" (1892). - See V. Stasov "Biographical Sketch" ("Artist", 1894, No. 34); S. Kruglikov "William Ratcliff" (ibid.); N. Findeisen "Bibliographic index of Cui's musical works and critical articles" (1894); "WITH. cui. Esquisse critique par la C-tesse de Mercy Argenteau ”(II, 1888; the only comprehensive essay on Cui); P. Weimarn "Caesar Cui as a Romansist" (St. Petersburg, 1896); Koptyaev "Piano works of Cui" (St. Petersburg, 1895).

Awards

• Order of St. Stanislav 3rd class (1863)
• Order of St. Anna, 3rd class (1870)
• Order of St. Stanislaus 2nd class (1873)
• Order of St. Anne 2nd class (1878)
• Order of St. Vladimir 4th class (1881)
• Order of St. Vladimir 3rd class (1883)
• Order of St. Stanislaus 1st class (1886)
• Order of St. Anne 1st class (1891)
• Order of St. Vladimir 2nd class (1901)
• Order of the White Eagle (VP 6.12.1911)
• Order of St. Alexander Nevsky (VP 6.12.1916)

Foreign:

• Commander's Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor (1896)

operas

(With the exception of filibuster , all of Cui's operas were first composed in Russian.)

• Prisoner of the Caucasus(according to Pushkin)
• Mlada(1st act; the rest was composed by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin and Minkus)
• William Ratcliff(in three acts, libretto by V. Krylov based on the dramatic ballad of the same name by Heinrich Heine, translated by A.N. Pleshcheev; premiered on February 14, 1869 at the Mariinsky Theatre)
• Angelo(By
  • Featured Articles. Leningrad: State. music publishing house, 1952. (On pp. 624-660 of this volume is the "Bibliographic index of articles by Ts. A. Cui, 1864-1918".)
  • Selected articles about performers. Moscow: State. music publishing house, 1957.
  • Music critical articles. T.1. With a portrait of the author and a preface by A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov. Petrograd: Musical contemporary, 1918.

  Monographs

  • History of Piano Music Literature. Course of A. G. Rubinshtein. 1888-1889. 2nd ed. SPb: I. Yurgenson, 1911. (The articles were first published in 1889 (1) in weeks under head. Sessions of A. G. Rubinstein. Piano Music Literature History Course; V L'Art, revue bimensuelle illustree under head. Cours de litterature musicale des oeuvres pour le piano au Conservatoire de Saint Petersbourg.)
  • Ring of the Nibelungen, Richard Wagner's tetralogy: A musical-critical essay. 2nd ed. Moscow: P. Yurgenson, 1909. (1st monographic ed. 1889. Articles first published in 1876 in SPb Vedomosti under head. Bayreuth musical celebration.)
  • La music en Russie . Paris: G. Fischbacher, 1880; rpt. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1974. (The articles were first published in 1880 in Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris.)
  • Russian romance: an outline of its development . St. Petersburg: N. F. Findeizen, 1896. (The articles were first published in 1895 in Artiste and in week.)

  Different

  • "A Historical Sketch of Music in Russia" ["Historical Sketch of Music in Russia" (in English)], The Century Library of Music. Ed. by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Vol. 7. New York: The Century Co., 1901, pp. 197-219.

  By fortification

  • "Attack and defense of modern fortresses (Development of this question in Prussia)". SPb: Type. Dep. appanages, 1881. (From military collection for 1881, no. 7)
  • "Belgium, Antwerp and Brialmont". SPb: Type. Dep. appanages, 1882. (From Engineering Journal, 1881, no. eleven)
  • Long-term fortification: a historical essay. The course of Mikhailovskaya art. acad.. St. Petersburg: 187-?.
  • Fortification notes of the junior cadet class of the Nikolaev Engineering School. St. Petersburg: 186-?
  • Brief historical outline of long-term fortification. 3., add. ed. SPb.: Type. Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1897. (1st ed. 1877.)
  • Brief Field Fortification Tutorial. 9th view ed. St. Petersburg: V Berezovsky, 1903. (1st ed.: Field Fortification Notes. Junior class course Nikolaevsk. eng. and Mikhailovsk. artillery schools, 1873; 2nd edition: Field fortification. Course Nikolaevsk.-eng., Mikhailovsk.-artil. and Nikolaevsk.-cavalry. schools, 1877.)
  • Experience in Rational Determination of the Size of Fortress Garrisons. SPb: Tipo-lit. A. E. Landau, 1899.
  • "Travel notes of an engineering officer in the theater of operations in European Turkey", St. Petersburg: Type. Dep. appanages, 1878. (From Engineering Journal, 1878, Nos. 8, 9.)
  • "The growth of fortresses and the change in their form depending on the increase in the number of armies." St. Petersburg: 1901. ( Military Knowledge Zealots Society, no. Jan 37, 24 1901)
  • Fortification textbook for infantry cadet schools. Ed. 2nd, view. and additional SPb.: Voen. type., 1899. (1st ed. 1892)

  Letters

  • Selected letters. Leningrad: State. music publishing house, 1955. (On pp. 624-660 of this volume is the "Bibliographic index of articles by Ts. A. Cui, 1864-1918".)
  • Airi Muselak, [The French Origin of the Russian Composer Caesar Antonovich Cui]. Soviet Music. 1979 n°10

  on April 15, 1914. - St. Petersburg, 1914.

• V. V. Stasov. Caesar Antonovich Cui. Biographical sketch. 1894.
• Bernandt, G. B. Dictionary of operas first staged or published in pre-revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, 1736-1959. Moscow: Soviet composer, 1962.
• Mercy-Argenteau, (La Comtesse de), Cesar Cui: esquisse critique. Paris: Fischbacher, 1888.
• Edward Wrocki, Cezary Cui. Życie i działalność. 1835-1918. Warszawa 1925. Nakład Rytmu.
• Nazarov, A. F. Caesar Antonovich Cui. Moscow: Muzyka, 1989.
• Neef, Sigrid. Handbuch der russischen und sowjetischen Oper. 1. Aufl. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1989, c1985.
• Neef, Sigrid. Die Russischen Funf: Balakirew, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgski, Rimski-Korsakow. Berlin: E. Kuhn, 1992.
• Neff, Lyle Kevin. Story, style, and structure in the operas of Cesar Cui. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, United States - Indiana. Retrieved June 20, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: A&I. (Publication No. AAT 3054368) (Abstract)
• Norris, Geoffrey and Neff, Lyle. "Cui, Cesar," Grove Music Online. Ed. L. Macy. (Accessed November 26, 2005),