Trepak (Russian Dance) from The Nutcracker, Op. 71

Program notes

About the Work

The Trepak is one of the ‘character dances’ that fill the Kingdom of Sweets in Act II of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky’s last and most popular ballet, premiered in St Petersburg in 1892. As Clara and her Nutcracker prince are entertained by a parade of treats, each nationality dances its own number (Spanish chocolate, Arabian coffee, Chinese tea), and the Trepak is the ‘Russian’ dance, named after a traditional Cossack folk dance from Ukraine and Russia. It is the briefest and most explosive of the suite: barely a minute long, built on stamping accents and a melody that accelerates to a breathless finish. Tchaikovsky, drawing on the squatting, kicking energy of the real trepak, compresses an entire crowd-pleasing dance into sixty seconds of pure adrenaline, making it a favourite encore and gala number quite apart from the ballet.

What to Listen For

Listen for the relentless acceleration: the tune starts fast and only gets faster, whipped along by hammered downbeats. The whole orchestra stamps in unison, evoking the squat-and-kick of the Cossack dancer, and Tchaikovsky times the final headlong rush so that the piece ends almost before you expect it, over in a flash, designed to bring the house down.