The "Mighty Five"
Modest Mussorgsky by Ilya Repin (1881)
QUOTE."
Five Russian-born composers rose to prominence during the reign of Alexander II, becoming known as "the Mighty Five."
- César Cui Born to a French father who had settled in Lithuania after invading Russia with Napoléon Bonaparte's Grande Armée, César Cui's primary career was as a Russian army general and military academy professor, where his students included the future Tsar Nicholas II. Music was mainly a hobby, and his writings as a music critic negatively affected the reception of his own music. His music was promoted in Europe by Franz Liszt, however, and received significant recognition.
- Aleksandr Borodin From Georgia in the Caucasus, Borodin was like Cui not a musician by profession, but a chemist. In his spare time, he wrote a handful of symphonies, string quartets, and the opera Prince Igor. His music was popularized in Europe by (who else?) Franz Liszt.
- Mily Balakirev was the composer who brought the "Mighty Five" together in the 1850s, specifically promoting a unique Russian tone of classical music. In his youth, Balakirev
- Modest Mussorgsky
- Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov