Editing César Cui (section)

===A vocational life in music===
Despite his achievements as a professional military academic, Cui is best known in the West for his 'other' life in music.  As a boy in Vilnius, he received [[piano]] lessons, studied [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]]'s works, and began composing little pieces at fourteen years of age.  In the few months before he was sent to Petersburg, he managed to have some lessons in [[music theory]] with the Polish composer [[Stanisław Moniuszko]], who was residing in Vilnius at the time.<ref>
Кюи, Ц. А., "Первые композиторские шаги Ц. А. Кюи (письмо к редактору)",
''Избранные статьи'', составитель И. Л. Гусин (Ленинград: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1952), editor's notes, pp. 542–543.</ref><ref>Назаров, pp. 12–14.</ref> Cui's musical direction changed in 1856, when he met [[Mily Balakirev]] and began to be more seriously involved with music.<ref>Назаров, pp. 25–27.</ref>

Even though he was composing music and writing music criticism in his spare time, Cui turned out to be an extremely prolific composer and [[feuilleton]]ist.  His public "debut" as a composer occurred in 1859 with the performance of his orchestral Scherzo, Op. 1, under the baton of [[Anton Rubinstein]] and the auspices of the [[Russian Musical Society]].<ref>Назаров, p. 46.</ref> In 1869, the first public performance of an [[opera]] by Cui took place, ''[[William Ratcliff (Cui)|William Ratcliff]]'' (based on the tragedy by [[Heinrich Heine]]); it did not ultimately have success, partially because of the harshness of his own writings in the music press.<ref>Гозенпуд, А. А., ''Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1857–1872'' [''Russian Operatic Theater of the 19th Century, 1857–1872''] (Ленинград, Музыка, 1971), 228–235.</ref><ref>Назаров, pp. 58–61.</ref> All but one of his operas were composed to Russian texts; the one exception, ''[[Le flibustier (opera)|Le flibustier]]'' (based on a play by [[Jean Richepin]]), premiered in 1894 at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in [[Paris]] (twenty-five years after ''Ratcliff''), but it did not succeed either.<ref>Назаров, pp. 132–135.</ref>  Cui's more successful stage works during his lifetime were the one-act [[comic opera]] ''[[The Mandarin's Son]]'' (premiered publicly in 1878), the three-act ''[[The Prisoner of the Caucasus (opera)|The Prisoner of the Caucasus]]'' (1883) (based on [[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]]), and the one-act ''[[Mademoiselle Fifi (Cui)|Mademoiselle Fifi]]'' (1903) (based on [[Guy de Maupassant]]).<ref>Бернандт, Г. Б. ''Словарь опер впервые поставленных или изданных в дореволюционной России и в СССР, 1836–1959.'' [''Dictionary of Operas First Performed or Published in Pre-Revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, 1836–1959'']
 (Москва: Советский композитор, 1962). pp. 125–126, 288, 170.</ref> Besides ''Flibustier'', the only other operas by Cui performed in his lifetime outside of the [[Russian Empire]] were ''The Prisoner of the Caucasus'' (in Liège, 1886; the first time any opera by [[The Five (composers)|The Five]] was performed outside Russia, but this was also its sole performance outside Russia) and the children's opera ''[[Puss in Boots (opera)|Puss in Boots]]'' (in Rome, 1915).<ref>Бернандт, Г. Б. ''Словарь опер'', pp. 125, 148.</ref>
[[Image:CuiBolshoiArtists 1902 CuiIP 273 600.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Cui among artists of the Moscow [[Bolshoi Theatre]], 1902]]
Cui's activities in musical life also included membership on the opera selection committee at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]]; this stint ended in 1883, when both he and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] left the committee in protest of its rejection of [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Khovanshchina]]''.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'' [''Selected Letters''], p. 112 (also editor's notes, pp. 571–572).</ref> From 1896 to 1904, he was director of the Petersburg branch of the [[Russian Musical Society]].<ref>Назаров, pp. 147, 184.</ref>

Among the many musicians Cui knew in his life, [[Franz Liszt]] looms large. His book, ''La musique en Russie'', and his ''Suite pour piano'', Op. 21, are dedicated to the elder composer. Cui's ''Tarantelle'' for orchestra, Op. 12, formed the basis for Liszt's last [[Arrangement|piano transcription]]. In addition, Liszt valued the music of Russian composers quite highly; for Cui's opera ''William Ratcliff'', he expressed some of the highest praise.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'', p. 506.</ref>

Two personalities of direct significance for Cui were women who were specially devoted to his music. In [[Belgium]], the [[Louisa de Mercy-Argenteau|Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau]] (1837–1890) was most influential in making possible the staging of ''The Prisoner of the Caucasus'' there in 1885.<ref>Назаров, p. 120.</ref> In [[Moscow]], Mariya Kerzina, with her husband Arkadiy Kerzin, formed a performance society in 1896 called the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, which began in 1898 to give special place to works by Cui (among those of other Russian composers) in its concerts.<ref>Назаров, pp. 150–157.</ref>

Throughout his rather long and active musical life, Cui won many accolades. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, several foreign musical societies honored Cui with memberships.  Shortly after the staging of ''Le flibustier'' in Paris, Cui was elected as a correspondent member of the [[Académie Française]] and was awarded the cross of the [[Legion of Honour|Légion d'honneur]]. In 1896, he was made a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Literature and Art.<ref>Назаров, pp. 35–36.</ref> In 1909 and 1910, events were held in honor of Cui's 50th anniversary as a composer.<ref>Назаров, pp. 201–205.</ref>