Description
The Russian composer, Vladimir Rebikov (1866-1920), deserves to be much better known. Although his early works were distinctly romantic in flavour he was an important early instigator of a number of new twentieth-century techniques.
Rebikov described his most famous work, The Christmas Tree Op.21 (‘Yolka’ in Russian), as a children’s musical-psychological opera. The story contrasts rich and poor on Christmas Eve and the opera’s libretto (by Plaksin) drew inspiration from the output of the unlikely trio of Hans Christian Andersen, Dostoyevsky and Gerhart Hauptmann.
The most famous music from Rebikov’s opera is this delightful, melancholic waltz. It is reminiscent in many ways of Tchaikovsky and is utterly enchanting. It is first heard in the opera being played on a piano on Christmas Eve in a warmly lit room in which children are laughing and dancing around a glittering Christmas tree. Outside in the snow a destitute young girl looks through the window, but the wealthy family inside ignores her. With nowhere to go, or anyone to look after her, she curls up in the bitter cold and, before succumbing to hypothermia, she hallucinates about her deceased mother and a magical Christmas tree.
Also available for wind quintet.
