Great All-Balanchine Program (on paper) disappointing (in fact) on Tuesday evening

First, let me say that New York City Ballet desperately needs a permanent music director.  The level of orchestral performances is gradually slipping from mediocre toward appalling.  They need to get very serious about attracting a first rate music director who can bring the orchestra back to a high performance level and inspire both the musicians and more importantly the dancers for whom they perform. 

Instead they spend an obscene amount of resources commissioning artists to disfigure their glorious Philip-Johnson-designed home with a misguided 'art series'. For the winter season, an artist known as 'J R' (I'd try to be anonymous, too, if I'd just desecrated Johnson's masterpiece) has been paid to cover the entire floor of the promenade with a photo-mural of company members in white tights lying in swirling patterns on a whitish background; to cover the facade with gigantic ballerina legs and feet; and to create ghostlike images of dancers stacked in piles for the corridors. Without passing judgement on the quality of this 'art' (actually it's probably pretty good), I do strongly object to using the company's limited resources in such a frivolous manner, far removed from it's mission.

Tuesday evening's all-Balanchine program seemed close to perfection on paper -- a balance of two contrasting neo-classical works, one to Bach, the other to Hindemith, plus a frothy show-biz classic:


TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 21, 7:30 PM
ALL BALANCHINE

CONCERTO BAROCCO: Kowroski, Mearns, *T. Angle [Guest Conductor: Ellaway; 1st Violin: Delmoni; 2nd Violin: Danielson]

pause

KAMMERMUSIK NO. 2: Krohn, Ramasar, A. Stafford, J. Angle [Guest Conductor: Ellaway; Solo Piano: Grant]

intermission

WHO CARES?: R. Fairchild, T. Peck, Reichlen, Bouder [Conductor: Sill; Solo Piano: Chelton]

With a raging blizzard outside, the marketed portion of the theater (the back of the fourth ring is apparently never marketed for repertory evenings) was still about two-thirds filled -- including many enthusiastic hardcore NYCB fans.

The performance (opening night of the winter season) was a mixed bag.  Maria Kowroski and Sara Mearns are both lovely, talented ballerinas, but their styles, looks, and temperaments are contrasting rather than complementary.  Their pairing in 'Concerto Barocco', especially in the two outer movements seemed both jarring and off-kilter.  

Maria Kowroski & Sara Mearns in Balanchine's 'Concerto Barocco', photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

The central pas de deux was beautifully danced by Maria with Tyler Angle (making his role debut here) with the lovely eight-woman corps providing gorgeous framing for them (Faye Arthurs and Lydia Wellington particularly caught my eye among the eight beauties).

Tyler Angle & Maria Kowroski with corps in Balanchine's Concerto Barocco', photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

We have seen Maria and Tyler paired in several works recently. They look wonderful together and dance with great rapport.  Tyler is probably the company's best current male partner and Maria with her long slender limbs seeming to stretch to infinity is a ballerina to cherish.

The orchestra played Bach's familiar 'Double Violin Concerto in D Minor' competently, but with little spirit and no nuance. If the guest conductor, Scott Ellaway, is on the short list for music director, I vote emphatically  'No'.

The musical performance of 'Kammermusik No. 2' by Hindemith lead by Maestro Ellaway with Cameron Grant at the piano, seemed perfunctory at best.  It's a tricky, difficult score, but the musicians should rise to these challenges instead of  just getting through them.  

Balanchine reportedly felt that with 'Kammermusik' in 1978 he finally had confidence that the company's male corps was up to the challenge of a featured role.  The eight-man corps (a different cast in two photos below) here provided a spiky, angular frame for the two lead couples and proved to be the most interesting part of this performance.  Their execution of Balanchine's patterns and 'daisy chains' precisely mirrored the tense, edgy score.

Messrs. Applebaum, Scordato, Ippolito & Nelson in Balanchine's 'Kammermusik No.2'
Photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

Men's Corps (an earlier cast)  in Balanchine's 'Kammermusik #2', photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Unfortunately, those lead performances seemed mismatched and out-of-scale. Of the four, Amar Ramasar came off best. He knows how to use this astringent music to shape and phrase his dancing in interesting ways.  Rebecca Krohn would seem ideal for this piece, but her dancing here seemed small-scaled and lacking in confidence.  Abi Stafford always looked eager to undertake these challenges, but was unable to connect individual steps into a coherent response to the score.  Jared Angle lacked  buoyancy and struggled to absorb the music into his performance. The pairings of these dancers -- Amar with Rebecca, Jared with Abi, Rebecca with Abi, Amar with Jared -- were also jarring, again proving more contrasting than complementary.

'Kammermusik' has never been one of my favorite pieces, but having seen it danced by its original 1978 cast (Karin von Aroldingen, Colleen Neary, Sean Lavery & Adam Luders) and by many fine casts since, we know that it is a better work than showed up on stage Tuesday night.

'Who Cares?' is a delightful romp through the Gershwin songbook.  It's joyous tribute to show business pizzaz seems to be immune to half-hearted performances, ugly costumes or merely adequate musical support.

The performance on Tuesday evening was uneven throughout.  Maestro Sills led these familiar tunes as if they were well -- just familiar tunes.  I've heard people knock the Hersey Kay orchestrations as being glib and facile, but under great conductors, I've always felt that it has charms that are enhanced by Balanchine's inventive choreography.

The costumes introduced last season are aggressively ugly. The corps and demi-soloist women wear dresses and do-rags that even with sequins and beading make them look more like washer-women than 30's era sophisticates. The colors on the 'ladies and gentlemen' of the ensemble are unpleasantly loud (see photo of men below).  The three principal women's dresses are better, but don't evoke the Gershwin era for me. Only the principal man's black costume seems restrained and 'of the era'  (Rob Fairchild has apparently discarded the beaded vest shown in his photos further down this post).

Ladies of the ensemble in new 'Who Cares?' costumes by Santo Loquasto, photo by Andrea Mohin for NY Times

Demi-soloist men (Prottas, Scordato, Dieck, J.Peck, Alberda - an earlier cast) in new 'Who Cares?' costumes
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

The five demi-soloist couples were a mix of matches and misses.  Joe Gordon oversold to a wan Erica Pereira.  Brittany Pollack and Andrew Scordato were nicely paired and danced with jaunty impact.  Statuesque Emily Kitka overwhelmed wiry Allen Peiffer -- both wonderful dancers but mismatched here.  Ashley Laracey seemed on, but Sean Suozzi seemed off. Lauren King and Devin Alberda looked great together and put a fine finish on 'Oh, Lady Be Good', concluding the ensemble portion of the ballet.

Tiler Peck and Rob Fairchild were wonderful in 'The Man I Love' pas de deux, with a strong romantic rapport (they're engaged after all) layered over superb technical facility.

Tiler Peck & Robert Fairchild in 'The Man I Love' from Balanchine's 'Who Cares?', photo by Kolnik for NYCB

Tiler is a beauty with wonderful technique.  Though she lacks the pliancy and supple back of the roles originator, Patricia McBride, she has plenty of her own special charms to stake a strong claim on this role.

Tile Peck in 'Fascinatin' Rhythm' solo from Balanchine's 'Who Care?'; photo by Kolnik for NYCB

Rob is an excellent partner in all three pdd's and has the louche charm of a natural song-and-dance man in his 'Liza' solo.

Robert Fairchild in 'Liza' solo from Balanchine's 'Who Cares?'; photo by Kolnik for NYCB

Teresa Reichlen seemed uncharacteristically tentative and uncommitted in her solo ('I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise') and her pdd with Rob ('Who Cares?').  These are far from the best of Balanchine's efforts in this work, but they can be sold with confidence and brio. Tess is usually a bright light and it was a real shame to see her looking so wan -- maybe she had the flu or a bad cold.

Ashley Bouder has the technique and stamina for the difficult 'My One and Only' solo and looked good in her pdd with Rob to 'Embraceable You'.  Her incredibly fast series of single and double fouette turns were spectacular. If she could just resist her 'look at me' smugness, she'd be perfect.

The curtain calls seemed peculiar for NYCB.  The curtain stayed up for the first full cast call.  Then the curtain closed and reopened on the 10 corps women who took a bow and left the stage.  Then the five demi-couples came on, took a bow and left the stage.  Then the four principals came on for a bow -- first Rob, who then brought on each of the women in succession.  Usually the second time the curtain goes up on the just the corps and then they stay on stage as each successive layer of the cast hierarchy joins them.  The solo bows for the principals then usually continue in front of the curtain.  Maybe the company wanted to let the ensemble get home before the blizzard got any worse.

A final thought for management of the theater -- why don't you reverse the direction of the escalators after the performance so that the audience has a comfortable means of reaching the subways and garage without going out into the cold and snow (or heat and rain or whatever)?  Maybe 'who cares?' is the company's new motto.