Here's my recording of this wonderful set of 7 (maybe originally 8 it is not clear) piano pieces. I already played the Nocturne separately; for this video I played it again.

0:00 Au couvent. Andante religioso (C♯ minor)
6:07 Intermezzo. Tempo di menuetto (F major)
10:15 Mazurka. Allegro (C major)
13:43 Mazurka. Allegretto (D♭ major)
17:33 Rêverie. Andante (D♭ major)
19:19 Sérénade. Allegretto (D♭ major)
21:34 Nocturne. Andantino (G♭ major)

Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887) was a Russian chemist and Romantic musical composer of Georgian ancestry. He was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Mighty Handful", a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of classical music, rather than imitating earlier Western European models. Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor. Music from Prince Igor, and his string quartets was later adapted for the US musical Kismet.

A doctor and chemist by profession, Borodin made important early contributions to organic chemistry. Although he is presently known better as a composer, during his lifetime, he regarded medicine and science as his primary occupations, only practising music and composition in his spare time or when he was ill. As a chemist, Borodin is known best for his work concerning organic synthesis, including being among the first chemists to demonstrate nucleophilic substitution, as well as being the co-discoverer of the aldol reaction. Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg, where he taught until 1885.

The picture in the end is from 1865. In his profession Borodin gained great respect, being particularly noted for his work on aldehydes. Between 1859 and 1862 Borodin had a postdoctoral position in Heidelberg. He worked in the laboratory of Emil Erlenmeyer (Erlenmeyer Kolben!) working on benzene derivatives. He also spent time in Pisa, working on halocarbons.

Borodin's fame outside the Russian Empire was made possible during his lifetime by Franz Liszt , who arranged a performance of the Symphony No. 1 in Germany during 1880, and by the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau in Belgium and France. His music is noted for its strong lyricism and rich harmonies. Along with some influences from Western composers, as a member of The Five his music has also a Russian style. His passionate music and unusual harmonies proved to have a lasting influence on the younger French composers Debussy and Ravel (in homage, the latter composed during 1913 a piano piece entitled "À la manière de Borodine").

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Thanks for listening :-)

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