About "The Mighty Handful"...

"The Mighty Handful"

From left to right: A female singer, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Mily Balakirev, Cesar Cui and Alexander Borodin

This curious crowd of drinkers, who were largely amatuer composers, was given its nickname("moguchaya kuchka") by the critic Vladimir Stasov in 1867. Thier self-styled leader was Balakirev, while Borodin worked as a chemist, Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer and Cesar Cui was a military engineer, and the most gifted, Mussorgsky, was a civil servant whom the rest regarded with a certain contempt. Nevertheless, their influence on Russian music in the late 19th century was immerse.