Suzanne Farrell on Leonard Lopate radio show

[Farrell Fan]

Suzanne Farrell and Elizabeth Holochuk, dancer with the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, will be interviewed by Leonard Lopate about recreating the "lost" Balanchine ballet, Pithoprakta, which is to be seen that evening at City Center's Fall for Dance festival. I'm excited. The show is on from noon to 2 p.m., but there are always multiple guests scheduled.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Wasn't this ballet the one that Villella recalls in his book as not being performed anymore because of some music issues, which made it unpopular...?

[papeetepatrick]

Probably, it's Iannis Xennakis, one of the high modernist composers who used Stochastics, combinative calculus, to compose. I once attended a NYPhilharmonic concert in which one of his works was being done, and there was this one blonde violinist who kept looking embarassed about the piece--she clearly hated it, and almost felt like one of the average ears in the audience. I like some of the work myself, there are two huge virtuoso piano pieces, Herma and Evryali, and he sometimes did sound for installations as at the late 50s Brussels World's Fair, and it is always very good, but it is not an easily accessible sound. Xennakis is not really music for ballet, would be more likely to be found in modern dance, but I'd like to see the Balanchine piece.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Thanks, Patrick for the info. Yes, i now recall the story...it was that the ballet was performed in an open venue of some sort, and that the amplified distorted sound was of such volume that it awaken the dog population of the vecinity, which created some chaos...not good.

[Jack Reed]

Thanks for the heads up, Farrell Fan! (Except that Thursday is the 25th.) I find most, but not all, of Lopate's programs are archived for listening on demand on WNYC's website, so I may get to hear it later.

As for Pithoprakta, I had a good time with it in Washington and wrote about it (at length) in the TSFB forum at the time, and there was (is?) a picture of it on the NY Times site. Yes, the composer is Xennakis.

If I were in the NYC area, I'd sure go! I hope somebody posts their impressions -- I could imagine some divergent ones if several BTers go...

[Farrell Fan]

As I recall, the ballet was fairly well-received in 1968. At the time, it consisted of two Xenakis pieces, Metastaseis and Pithoprakta, and the ballet, which starred Suzanne Farrell and Arthur Mitchell, was titled accordingly. P. W. Manchester (quoted in Repertory in Review) wrote: "The miracle Balanchine has performed here is to take two pieces of exceptional complexity and aural difficulty and make them such perfect servants of his dance that henceforth they will live in perfect oneness with the ballet." Farrell and Mitchell appeared only in the Pithorakta section, the part that has now been revived.

[Farrell Fan]

Thanks for the correction, Jack.

[vipa]

Thanks for the heads up, Farrell Fan! (Except that Thursday is the 25th.) I find most, but not all, of Lopate's programs are archived for listening on demand on WNYC's website, so I may get to hear it later.

As for Pithoprakta, I had a good time with it in Washington and wrote about it (at length) in the TSFB forum at the time, and there was (is?) a picture of it on the NY Times site. Yes, the composer is Xennakis.

If I were in the NYC area, I'd sure go! I hope somebody posts their impressions -- I could imagine some divergent ones if several BTers go...

For those of you with ipods - all of Lopate's shows are available as podcasts

[kfw]

As for Pithoprakta, I had a good time with it in Washington and wrote about it (at length) in the TSFB forum at the time, and there was (is?) a picture of it on the NY Times site.

It's still there. This is a ballet and a score I wanted to see and hear again, right away.

[carbro]

The program is also streamed live, and it seems that Farrell's segment will play during the second half of the 12:00 hour. You can hear it through either the AM or FM feed on the station's homepage: http://www.wnyc.org/ .

I'll post a direct link to the segment later this afternoon, after the station makes it available.

[carbro]

As promised: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2008/09/25

Right now, on the right side of the screen is an ad for Morphoses' upcoming season at City Center. It features, most aptly, a photo of the lovely Maria Kowroski extending her elegant hand. I don't imagine that the advertisers considered that Maria has inherited so many roles created on Farrell.

[Farrell Fan]

Thanks, carbro. Sounded even better the second time. Elisabeth Holowchuk did great.