New York City Ballet 1/26/19

Balanchine has an extraordinary gift for bringing performers to life on their own personal terms, so that the unconscious grace that is in each one of them can shine out in the work they do, giving it the momentary and mortal expression of beauty.
--Edwin Denby, Modern Music, Jan.- Feb. 1943.

Denby was writing about Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, originally called Ballet Imperial, a reference to the Petipa style; Balanchine changed the title in 1973, when he felt it could stand on its own in relation to the music.  It did this beautifully on Saturday:  new costumes by Marc Happel, conducting by Andrew Litton, piano played by Susan Walters and, especially, dancing by Teresa Reichlen, Megan LeCrone and Tyler Angle and a superb corps all played their part.  I only grew to love Tschaikovsky's music when I started seeing Balanchine's beautiful choreography to his compositions, including Serenade (to Serenade for Strings), Mozartinana (Suite No. 4) and Suite No. 3.

Serenade was the first piece on Saturday and the first piece Balanchine did in America (1935).  Balanchine reversed the order of the last two movements, adding an unusual adagio ending.  Though Serenade has no literal story it is something of an analogy for Balanchine's arrival in America --it begins with the corps shifting into fifth position-- even including accidents that happened during rehearsals in the choreography.  I have seen Serenade many times and, like other Balanchine ballets, I always see something new in it while enjoying the complex details of its familiarity.

Mozartiana is about growing up and facing death.  It was choregraphed for Suzanne Farrell in 1981, one of Balanchine's last ballets (he died in 1983).  One can see in Mozartiana all the reasons why Balanchine loved Farrell, especially her ability to do multiple off-balance turns.  The ballet includes four girls from the School of the American Ballet and four corps members, representing them when they are older.  It's about time passing by and using that time well. Saturday it was danced by Sterling Hyltin and Anthony Huxley in the roles originated by Farrell and Ib Andersen.

The grand perspectives of the piano concerto are dramatized in dancing that is spacious, clear and, in human terms, temperate.  The ballet's countenance is placid.  Yet we are gripped by an underlying tension -- the tension of scale and sweep and the more intimate tension of mood.
--Arlene Croce, The New Yorker, 6/11/79

It has been about ten years since I last saw Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 and my breath was taken away Saturday by both its scale (especially when Tyler Angle had ten women boureeing on each arm) and its intimacy (Angle doing cabrioles and brisee vole as well as pas de deux with Teresa Reichlen).  The overall impression of the day was beauty and classicism.  The three ballets date from 1935, 1941 and 1981:  each ballet is of its time while simultaneously transcending it.