DanielBenton

Jennifer Homans has written an essay in the June 4 2015 issue of The New York Review of Books: "Balanchine: Making and Being Don Quixote"

Ditto Vipa. If he improves from one performance to the next as he did from the first to the second it will be quite interesting to see his development. Watching the performance on Saturday May 9, it struck me that much of Stravinsky's score is sublime, not unlike listening to Schubert. Someone once asked Stravinsky what he thought of those who said Schubert's Great C Major Symphony was too long. He replied, to paraphrase, "what difference does it make how long it is? You listen to it, then it ends, and you realize you've been in heaven". That Balanchine could put the visual gestures and movements to this as he did is, well, astonishing.

This is awesome. She operates on almost pure rhythm

Abatt and Vipa, why are the See The Music lectures so distasteful? Specifically, most people do not understand Webern's music so an attempt to explain his principles might be useful before watching Episodes. More generally, an understanding of music is at the root of Balanchine's structural organization and these brief talks might help elucidate this.

Vipa, you are not alone.

I was able to order my subscription for 2015-2016 by phone at 10est today

Can we still order subscriptions starting tomorrow April 28? I have received to information about this from NYCB.

Pherank, from the DVD notes: The participants as listed are: Diana Adams, Violette Verdy, Jiliana, Francia Russell, Todd Bolender, Arthur Mitchell, Richard Rapp, Roy Tobias, Susan Borree, Carole Fields, Marlene Mesavage and "The Identity of the twelfth dancer cannot be determined." So first section is everyone available (with Adams and Verdy out front amongst the females), II. Sarabande-step: Bolender. Gaillarde: Jiliana and Russell. Coda: all three; III. Bransle simple: Rapp and Tobias. Bransle gay: Verdy. Bransle double: all three. IV. Pas-de-deux: Adams and Mitchell. Four duos: four males + four principal females. Four trios: everyone

I am glad to see Balanchine being done by smaller companies, though it seems odd programming to put the three ballets together comprising this program.

Back in Iowa since Feb 1 I am enjoying these great reviews of this month's programs.

Kathleen you are a tech wizard

Thanks Quiggin, I have a vague memory now of the Balanchine quote. Looking at the original costumes and how they changed shows this, and also how it became lighter and sort of whimsical as time went on.

Quiggin I am intrigued by the comment about Balanchine referring to Apollo as a "period piece". Do you know the context of the remark or more about this? Thanks

Very good thoughts Quiggin. SFB using Serenade music to unrelated dances gives new meaning to Mr. B.'s axiom "See the music, hear the dance". And some people used to question why Stravinsky and Schoenberg refused to do film scores without having artistic control of the product.

I like the part in the NYTimes 2 minute interview excerpt with the filmmaker where he talks about how the music, because it is so integral with the dance, gets in the way of some camera shots he would have liked to have made.

It sounds like the whole production has managed to actually dumb down Justin's creative work; that is a shame!

I agree the Goldberg is too long; I don't think it should be cut, because it is a great composition and needs to be played in its entirety or you lose the structural genius that it is, But Robbins takes most of the repeats, which most concert performances do not. The usual concert performance is about 40-50 minutes, not 80-85,. I get that by taking the musical repeats Robbins gets to do something different with the dance during the repeat. Also I thought the clapping that increased as the performance went on was very disruptive. Cameron had to wait several times between pieces and that disrupts the musical flow. Someone told me that back in the day the audience was asked not to applaud until the piece was over. Not sure of the source on this.

Helene, you are correct. I should not have used the word "all". "Many" might have been a better word. Macaulay has had a lot of things to say over the years, on a lot of subjects.

Natalia, I rarely disagree with Macaulay's facts as presented (I did not see the Mariinsky at BAM so I don't know about this particular topic). I was referring to his (now infrequent) angry outbursts which illuminated his state of mind more than the topic he was discussing.

Amour, thanks for venting. We all feel your irritation!

I also was given Saturday night's program for Sunday afternoon. When I told the usher she said "that's not possible; the programs are not recycled". I showed her the evidence, and others came up to her with the same problem. I think Vipa described yesterday's performance very well.

That's where I sit; I thought those were the good seats!

Amour, you might consider Balanchine's view of Stravinsky's music (and he was referring to Agon) when he said Stravinsky was the master of creating time in very small units. In other words time is compressed, the melodies are short and angular, but a pulse is always present. So different from Tchaikovsky's music, where time is created over large expanses.

Thanks for giving this its own thread and removing it from, you know, the other one

Kathleen, thank you for pulling all the versions together. I learn from watching different performers