Description
Mathilde Kralik wrote the Weihnachts-Idyll (Christmas Idyll) in December 1926 at the age of 69. It is a work in which the tonality of late Romanticism
seems to be stretched to its limits. An idyll is generally understood as a peaceful, contemplative state, a perfect world. This is reflected in
the composition. However, in the ethereal sections, where distant chords briefly resolve into harmonies, the idyll is abandoned in the realm of functional harmony and thus in the auditory impression. This is also the case with the song „Oh Du Fröhliche,“ into which the Christmas Idyll flows, accompanied by twelve bell strikes in the piano part.
