Kalinka

The story

"Kalinka" is a song in the Russian folk style, written in 1860 by the composer and folklorist Ivan Larionov. It was first performed in Saratov as part of a theatrical entertainment he had composed, and was soon taken into the repertoire of a folk choral group. Its title is the kalinka, the snowball tree (Viburnum opulus).

The Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin sang it and recorded it in the early days of recording, for His Master's Voice and Victor. Since the end of World War II it has been made known above all by the Alexandrov Ensemble, the official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces, whose arrangement turned the light song into something close to an operatic aria. Pyotr Tverdokhlebov was the first of the ensemble's soloists to sing it. At the Berlin peace concert of August 1948 Viktor Nikitin sang three encores of it and became the first "Mr. Kalinka", an unofficial title that audiences and journalists give to the soloist of a concert where the song wins many encores. Evgeny Belyaev (1926–1994), one of its best-known singers, earned the title at the ensemble's London concerts of 1956 and 1963, and in 1963 made a definitive recording of it at the Abbey Road Studios in London with the Alexandrov Ensemble under Boris Alexandrovich Alexandrov. Later holders of the title include Vasily Ivanovich Shtefutsa and Vadim Petrovich Ananyev.

The song is counted among the most famous Russian folk and folk-style songs, in Russia and around the world. The Italian-American bass Ezio Pinza sang it in the 1953 film Tonight We Sing, a semi-biography of Chaliapin. It became one of the theme tunes of Atari's 1988 version of Tetris and has often appeared in licensed Tetris games since, beside "Korobeiniki" and "Troika". It is the theme of the Russian civilisation in the video game Civilization VI (2016), and the soprano Aida Garifullina sang it at the closing ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, with the former footballer Ronaldinho.

What it says

A light-hearted song whose refrain calls out to the kalinka, the snowball tree. It is fast, and the refrain quickens each time it returns.

The words