Alexander Borodin:

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) of Russia was first a chemist, rather than a musician. He entered the Academy of Physicians at age 17 and practiced medicine. After meeting the other composers of a Russian composers group eventually known as "The Five," he worked on composing but was limited by his occupational responsibilities.

Listen to perhaps his most famous piece: The Polovtsian Dances from the opera Prince Igor. It's an example of exoticism (drawing on musical ideas from foreign lands). The opera was left unfinished when Borodin died 1887. It was completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, and first performed in St. Petersburg in 1890.

String Quartet No. 2 in D major, movement I Allegro moderato

Nocturne

In the Steppes of Central Asia