César Cui - 25 Preludes, op.64 (1904): 2. E minor: moderato assai

César Cui - 25 Preludes, op.64 (1904): 2. In E minor: moderato assai. Performed by Jeffrey Biegel (piano). Recorded Recorded September 1992 at Orum Hall, Valparaiso, Indiana, U.S.A. Record label: Naxos.
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From Wikipedia:
César Antonovich Cui (18 January [O.S. 6 January] 1835 - 13 March 1918) was a Russian composer and music critic, member of the Belyayev circle and The Five - a group of composers combined by the idea of creating a specifically Russian type of music. As an officer of the Imperial Russian Army he rose to the rank of Engineer-General (equivalent to full General), taught fortifications in Russian military academies and wrote a number of monographs on the subject.
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 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. Cui's musical direction changed in 1856, when he met Mily Balakirev and began to be more seriously involved with music.
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 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.
As a writer on music, Cui contributed almost 800 articles to various newspapers and other publications in Russia and Europe between 1864 and 1918 (he "retired" from regular music criticism in 1900). His wide coverage included concerts, recitals, musical life, new publications of music, and personalities.
Cui composed in almost all genres of his time, with the distinct exceptions of the symphony, symphonic poem and the solo concerto (unlike his compatriots Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). Art songs, including many children's songs and some vocal duets, have a prominent place in Cui's catalogue. Several of his songs are available also in versions with orchestral accompaniment, including his Bolero, Op. 17, which was dedicated to the singer Marcella Sembrich. Some of his most famous art songs include "The Statue at Tsarskoye Selo" and "The Burnt Letter, both based on poems by Cui's most valued poet, Alexander Pushkin.