Cui liked his friends from the Moguchaya Kuchka, but was often very critical of music by other Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. This may have been because he was jealous of their success. He did not find orchestration easy and Balakirev helped him a lot with the orchestration of some of his compositions. He was best when writing songs and short piano pieces. He liked to write music that sounded Far Eastern in character. Cellists like to play a short piece he wrote called “Orientale”.