Macaulay on Tchaikovsky

[jkr3855]

SPF and Tchaikovsky

ways of setting of Tchaikovsky; SPF/Nutcracker discussion

 

Tchaikovsky, Balanchine, other Nutcrackers

comparison of a few productions

 

first article includes embedded full length 1993 Nutcracker, I think

 

 

[Kaysta]

Interesting articles, thanks for posting.

 

I love the Nutcracker score, honestly I could listen to it anytime of the year.

 

With regards to different Nutcrackers, so far, I have definitely preferred the Balanchine version over all others that I have seen, however I'm starting to have an appreciation for different versions.

 

I will say, one thing I dislike about Balanchine's is the fact that one of the most amazing parts of Tschaikovsky's score (the Scene in the Pine Forest) is used only to transport Marie on her bed to the forest.  To me, that music is so grand and beautiful, that I prefer it to be danced to.  It's one of the parts I admire most in Ratmansky's version.  It's unfortunate for NYers that ABT has moved the production out West, because it would be nice to be able to see a different version.  Maybe next year I'll take the trip out to California.

[Jack Reed]

As music, The Nutcracker may even be better than the Sleeping Beauty, at least to me, though some consider the SP music to be an intrusion in another style.  I could also listen to it in any season!  Mastery and variety, never tiring or anywhere near boring.  (A lot of ballet music doesn't stand up - pardon the pun - without the dancing, but Tchaikovsky - and Delibes and Stravinsky, Balanchine's "trinity" - are worlds enough just to hear.)

 

I do agree with Macaulay's criticism of Balanchine's rearrangement of Nutcracker, though, and - to some extent - with Kaysta's criticism of  Balanchine's under-use of the "Pine Forest" music, but I still think his the best choreography overall.

 

I haven't seen the Ratmansky Nutcracker, but Ballet Chicago here beautifully choreographs that part as an adagio for two principals, backed by a corps of girls.  (There is a still-image gallery on the B.C. website, but it omits this lovely scene, sorry to say.)

 

While I'm on that subject, I'll mention that Daniel Duell and Patricia Blair, who run Ballet Chicago, put the (Balanchine's) SP pas de deux in the classic place, late in Act II, and all together (Duell has made a replacement for the lost male variation). 

 

There are other places in Balanchine's work where the stage action is suspended or minimal - would Symphony in Three Movements be a surprising comparison?  Did he expect us just to listen and be affected by what we heard?  (As Kaysta and I are affected by the "Pine Forest" music.)  And still other places where his editions of the music are more successful than Macaulay and I think in his Nutcracker:  I'd nominate Serenade with its eventual, final, famous re-ordering of the movements to suit Balanchine's purpose, which was, I'd say, to enlist Tchaikovsky's collaboration in his theater project; and also, in Divertimento No. 15, where Mozart supplied an agitated introduction to the last movement Balanchine evidently couldn't use, and discarded.

 

Balanchine's greatness for me stems from his ability to follow the musical instructions of his chosen collaborators - his The Nutcracker, even with its anomalies, among the greatest:  You see what you hear, moment by moment by moment.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Jack Reed

[Kaysta]

4 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

 

There are other places in Balanchine's work where the stage action is suspended or minimal - would Symphony in Three Movements be a surprising comparison?  Did he expect us just to listen and be affected by what we heard?  (As Kaysta and I are affected by the "Pine Forest" music.)  

 

That is a wonderful point, Jack.  Maybe he left that music without choreography because it is so grand.  As you state, maybe he wanted the audience to just listen to it (and watch the snow fall!)  Somewhat unrelated, but it reminds me of something Ratmansky said during his NYPL interview.  He said something along the lines of how he won't try to choreograph to Mozart, Bach or Beethoven, because the music is too majestic and it should stand alone.

 

As for changing the scores to suit the ballet, I have mixed feelings about it.  It's done all of the time and if McCauley has a problem with Balanchine doing it, then he should also have a problem with just about every version of Swan Lake currently in production.  As a relative ballet and classical music newbie (who still has a lot to learn!), I was surprised to learn that the music used for the Black Swan PDD belongs in the first act.    And I enjoy Serenade just the way it is.  Frankly, I find the super slow tempi employed by certain companies more "distorting" to the music then reordering.   

 

I've never seen the Ballet Chicago version, so I'll have to put that on my to-do list.

Edited December 11, 2016 by Kaysta

[Kaysta]

Oh, and I'd add Prokofiev to the list of music that stands up without dancing!

[Helene]

I like that there's no dancing to the Forest Music.  

[pherank]

In Helgi Tomasson's version for SFB, the "Pine Forest" music is used during the transformation of the Nutcracker from wooden toy to living man: Clara is afraid that the Nutcracker may have been killed by the Mouse King, but Drosselmeier assures her that is not so (in mime), and awakens the Nutcracker. Drosselmeier then removes the Nutcracker's costume head and outer jacket to reveal his human self. The Prince/Nutcracker performs a solo (presumably joyful at becoming a living man) and briefly partners Clara. Then on Drosselmeier's 'magical' bidding, the Snow King and Queen enter the stage on a crystal sleigh. The really grand, welling portion of the "pine forest" score is used as a transition and introduction of the Snow K & Q. It actually works quite well - the lack of a "pine forest" never really bothered me.

 

Go to 35:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9eUYZBo66A

 

In some productions this music seems to be referred to as "The Christmas Tree".

[cubanmiamiboy]

On 12/10/2016 at 10:45 PM, Helene said:

I like that there's no dancing to the Forest Music.  

 

I second that. I have always felt that the thing that stands out the most in both Petipa's and Balanchine's choreography is their very smart use of dancing vs non dancing segments. I think it is brilliant that one can find entire passages of music in both choreographers works with either minimal to no dancing whatsoever, whereas the same segments are over cramped with endless steps by others-(usually Vainonen, Grigorovich or Nureyev). Classical example..Petipa's-(Ivanov??)-mime scene during Odette/Siegfried first encounter, so wonderfully recreated by ABT and so overly choreographed by the Soviets...or said moody B's "Transformation Scene" in the Nutcracker, with the traveling bed...or even the tiny segment on B's Marzipan dance where the key suddenly goes to minor and the soloist just stays in the center gesturing her hands up and down with her hands holding the musical instrument and minimal poses changes...simple but nonetheless very musical vs, let's say, the same segment in Vainonen's children "Rococo Pas de Trois" where he uses the same music to display an endless amount of entrechats for the little kid. And let's not even go to Nureyev...who can be OVERWHELMING in his over use of steps all the time in every single bar of music.

Edited December 12, 2016 by cubanmiamiboy

[Jack Reed]

Add to the list Wheeldon's new overchoreographed, busy Nutcracker, which has a (rather fussy) dance for the Nutcracker Prince - just called "The Nutcracker" - and Marie, as the, by this time, not-so-little girl is called in his version; soon they are joined by the controlling Grand Impresario (who takes the place of the controlling Drosselmeyer in some other versions) before we see a single snowflake, dancing or just fluttering down from the heavens. 

 

I think you can hear this adagio music as a tender or at least classically considerate dance for two - Daniel Duell's example for Ballet Chicago persuaded me of that years ago (and it's better than Wheeldon's for being full-blown classical dancing, nothing vague or needing a third party's management) - as the beginning of the Snow scene - but I also prefer to let myself be mesmerized - transported - into the world of the imagination soon to be revealed to us in The Land of Sweets, after the relatively realistic world of the Christmas party and the nightmarish world of the Battle.  More than smooth, formal transition, Pine Forest and Snow are preparation.

 

(Thinking more about Wheeldon's scene, the less it seems a coherent dance, organic to the music, and the more it seems a meander, but maybe this is not the thread for that.)    

Edited December 13, 2016 by Jack Reed

[Jack Reed]

Ballet Chicago doesn't have video posted to compare with SFB's and Balanchine's etc., but for the sake of the discussion, here's some images of their Snow scene they posted recently (from previous years), starting with the Pine Forest adagio, I believe:

 

FB_RMP_0185.jpg

 

RMP_3814.jpg

 

RMP_9054.jpg

 

(I haven't had a chance to catch up with the SFB video pherank posted yet.)

[pherank]

6 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Ballet Chicago doesn't have video posted to compare with SFB's and Balanchine's etc., but for the sake of the discussion, here's some images of their Snow scene they posted recently (from previous years), starting with the Pine Forest adagio, I believe:

 

FB_RMP_0185.jpg

 

RMP_3814.jpg

 

RMP_9054.jpg

 

(I haven't had a chance to catch up with the SFB video pherank posted yet.)

 

I was just reading Macaulay's review of the Wheeldon/Joffrey Nutcracker, and it certainly sounds visually interesting, if not engaging. However, more is more with Wheeldon as he explores full-evening ballet structures. This all sounds similar to his Cinderella (down to the integral Basil Twist stage effects).

[Jack Reed]

Thanks for the link!  Macaulay puts his finger right on the main problem with Wheeldon's Nutcracker where he says,

"... this version becomes trite as you watch  because no individual character is fresh. I couldn’t believe his heart was in this story."

I think this helps account for why the six-year-old girl sitting on the opposite side of her mother from me at the Sunday matinee was bored.

And the rest of his review is a good account of the other problems - not least the rearrangement of some of Tchaikovsky's music - clarinet passages played klezmer style early in Act I, for instance - which add up after while to my problem with it:  These revised versions of art reduce or deny the audience or spectator the possibility of the experience of being taken "out of themselves", of visiting another world; instead, they bring it down to the viewer.  Some artists know better, for example, as Suzanne Farrell put it at NYU in September,

 

Quote

We want you to come into our world, not, we come down into yours.

  

To me this is the richer experience.  A vital, vibrant world in itself, different from the one we see around us - not without references, perhaps, but essentially different.

 

Ironic, that such a revision of the "traditional" Nutcracker should turn out so trite.  Its new scenario burdens it - as the mother of the little girl said, "I want the magic of Christmas!"  Not much magic in this show.

[cubanmiamiboy]

On 12/14/2016 at 10:32 AM, Jack Reed said:

Ballet Chicago doesn't have video posted to compare with SFB's and Balanchine's etc., but for the sake of the discussion, here's some images of their Snow scene they posted recently (from previous years), starting with the Pine Forest adagio, I believe:

 

FB_RMP_0185.jpg

 

RMP_3814.jpg

 

RMP_9054.jpg

 

(I haven't had a chance to catch up with the SFB video pherank posted yet.)

 

I just finished watching the SF version-(I got a smart TV as a Christmas gift and I am LOVING it...so much to see on Youtube!!).  No...there's no way to top Balanchine's Snow Scene.  No SF..no Vainonen...no Grigorovich...NOT EVEN Sir Peter Wright's.  Snow and Flowers ARE BALANCHINE, IN CAPITALS AND 100%.  I swear one of this days I'm going to merge both B's and Wright's into one editing to interpolate Petipa's/Ivanov Grand Pas de deux-(which NO ONE has been able to top...not even Mr. B)-into one video.  

[pherank]

17 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

 

Ironic, that such a revision of the "traditional" Nutcracker should turn out so trite.  Its new scenario burdens it - as the mother of the little girl said, "I want the magic of Christmas!"  Not much magic in this show.

 

The telling part of Macaulay's article for me was this point:

"The Nutcracker is usually refreshing because it’s the only Romantic ballet that’s not about romantic love — but Mr. Wheeldon and Mr. Selznick have given us two romantic affairs."

 

It may not seem like much, but this does completely alter the original dynamic of the ballet (and what allows it to speak to children so successfully). Originally, the concession made to adults was to have Clara/Maria dance with the Nutcracker/Prince in the Grand Pas de Deux (and in some productions Clara is "transformed" into her adult self to do so). But I've never seen this dance portrayed in a truly romantic or sexual way - it's always been a display of traditional balletic technique, and not any kind of plot development scene (I'm thinking of the more traditional versions, not complete re-imaginings like Morris' Hard Nut). Young children do get bored if there's too much pure dance and not enough exuberant storytelling.

[Kaysta]

2 hours ago, cubanmiamiboy said:

 

I just finished watching the SF version-(I got a smart TV as a Christmas gift and I am LOVING it...so much to see on Youtube!!).  No...there's no way to top Balanchine's Snow Scene.  No SF..no Vainonen...no Grigorovich...NOT EVEN Sir Peter Wright's.  Snow and Flowers ARE BALANCHINE, IN CAPITALS AND 100%.  I swear one of this days I'm going to merge both B's and Wright's into one editing to interpolate Petipa's/Ivanov Grand Pas de deux-(which NO ONE has been able to top...not even Mr. B)-into one video.  

I enjoyed the SF version (although I might have been blinded by pure joy at seeing Yuan Yuan Tan dance).  But I do agree, overall, Balachine is still tops.  His snow scene made me cry the first time I saw it (and I was an adult).   I'm still not that fond of the swirling bed, but I can understand why it was left that way.

[sandik]

2 hours ago, pherank said:

 

The telling part of Macaulay's article for me was this point:

"The Nutcracker is usually refreshing because it’s the only Romantic ballet that’s not about romantic love — but Mr. Wheeldon and Mr. Selznick have given us two romantic affairs."

 

It may not seem like much, but this does completely alter the original dynamic of the ballet (and what allows it to speak to children so successfully). Originally, the concession made to adults was to have Clara/Maria dance with the Nutcracker/Prince in the Grand Pas de Deux (and in some productions Clara is "transformed" into her adult self to do so). But I've never seen this dance portrayed in a truly romantic or sexual way - it's always been a display of traditional balletic technique, and not any kind of plot development scene (I'm thinking of the more traditional versions, not complete re-imaginings like Morris' Hard Nut). Young children do get bored if there's too much pure dance and not enough exuberant storytelling.

 

An interesting point -- in the Stowell/Sendak production, young Clara is transformed to a young woman in the second act, and the Pasha (danced by the same person that plays Drosselmeyer in act one) seems to pursue her, which always feels a bit creepy to me.