New York City Ballet -- Sunday, October 19, 2014

How disheartening to walk home from the performance by New York City Ballet last Sunday afternoon!  We had just seen four works by Balanchine choreographed to the music of Tschaikovsky -- Balanchine's company performing four works to the music of one of his favorite composers.   And yet, the fall season had just ended for us with a dull thud.  

SUNDAY MATINEE, OCTOBER 19, 3:00 PM
[Conductor: Capps]
SERENADE: Mearns, Lowery, Reichlen, J. Angle, Danchig-Waring
MOZARTIANA: Kowroski, T. Angle, Huxley
pause
TSCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: Bouder, Garcia
TSCHAIKOVSKY SUITE NO. 3: ELEGIE: Krohn, la Cour; WALTZ: A. Stafford, J. Peck;
SCHERZO: Pazcoguin, Schumacher; THEME & VARIATIONS: Hyltin, Veyette

Sure, the company had celebrated the retirement of an iconic ballerina (Wendy Whelan) after a storied 30-year career with the company the night before.  Sure, they were just finishing a season packed with premieres of four new works.  Sure, three of its principals have gone on sabbatical to perform in Broadway shows.  Sure, the company's ranks have been depleted by illness and injury. Sure, sure, sure there are excuses to be made for this bloated, dull performance.

The most egregious reason for this lackluster performance, is the continuing erosion of the standards of the orchestra.  It is now nearly three years since the former music director, Faycal Karoui, announced his decision to leave the company.  Since his departure in the Spring of 2012, the company has not succeeded in securing a competent replacement and has struggled along with an inadequate 'interim music director',  two associate conductors of good-to-indifferent quality, and a collection of so-so guest conductors who may have been auditioning for the music directorship.

The failure of Peter Martins and the Board of Directors to find and engage a music director of the stature of Andrea Quinn and Faycal Karoui for the house of Balanchine is a disgrace.  Having allowed the orchestra to deteriorate in the years prior to Maestra Quinn's arrival in 2001, one would think that management had already learned the lesson that inadequate attention to the pit can have a disastrous impact on the artistic merit of what is presented on stage.

It is interesting to note that three of the four new works this season were performed to solo piano music or small chamber ensembles.  Are the choreographers choosing not to entrust their new pieces to an interim music director and his deficient orchestra?

Instead of just complaining about the lousy music making, let me propose a long-term solution.  Together, New York City Ballet, the Julliard School and Career Transitions for Dancers should establish a joint fellowship/apprenticeship program that identifies dancers reaching the end of their stage careers who have the interest and aptitude to become conductors -- specifically ballet conductors.  Julliard provides formal training and mentorship in music and conducting; City Ballet, the Julliard Dance Division and the School of American Ballet provide apprentice conducting opportunities; individuals who understand ballet from the perspective of dancers gain the technical skills to become ballet conductors and music directors; meaningful career transitions for dancers are facilitated; and the pool of qualified candidates for music director is expanded. 

On Sunday, the orchestra's playing under Daniel Capps wasn't awful, merely indifferent, rote and plodding.

NYC Ballet corps in the opening image of the Balanchine/Tschaikovsky 'Serenade'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

In 'Serenade' to Tschaikovsky's 'Serenade in C for Strings' it seemed that the dancers were given no incentive to listen to the music and respond to it.  When dancers of the stature of Sara Mearns, Teresa Reichlen and Jared Angle appear lethargic and unmotivated something is quite wrong.  Reichlen's 'dark angel' barely completed the manipulated rotations in arabesque above Mearns and left out the final stretched arabesque pose that usually makes this moment so striking.  Adrian Danchig-Waring flubbed a lift with Reichlen.  The final tableau with Mearns carried by the four men looked perilously shakey. 

The closing image of the Balanchine/Tschaikovsky 'Mozartiana' with Tyler Angle, Maria Kowroski and 
Daniel Ulbricht.  Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

Balanchine created 'Mozartiana' in 1981 for Suzanne Farrell, Ib Anderson and Christopher d'Amboise -- to Tschaikovsky's 'Suite No. 4', his arrangement and orchestration of four short works by Mozart.  Balanchine had used the music before -- first for Les Ballets 1933 and then in 1945 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Maria Kowroski looked calm and poised in the opening 'Preghiera' which Balanchine stages as a kind of prayer.  Unfortunately, the four young students from the School of American Ballet looked ragged and undone by the lack of musical pulse coming from the pit.  The elegant Anthony Huxley, new in the 'Gigue' this season, gave a surprisingly uninspired performance.  The four tall women (Marika Anderson, Megan Johnson, Emily Kikta, Gwyneth Muller) looked gorgeous in the 'Menuet' but the pit undermined their precision.    Tyler Angle joined Kowroski for the 'Theme et Variations'.  They danced beautifully despite the orchestra's failure to adequately differentiate one variation from another.

Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia in Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux'
Photo from (Albany) Daily Gazette

Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia brought the requisite dazzle to Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux'.  They looked great together.  Gonzalo turns the opposite direction from most male principals in the variations, which is a little disconcerting, but doesn't detract from the clarity of his execution.  Bouder's bravura was on full display -- without the smugness that can often undermine her performances.

Corps and demi-soloists in 'Tema con Variazioni' from Balanchine's 'Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3'.
Photo by Paul Kolnik for NYC Ballet

In 1970 Balanchine created 'Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3' by choreographing the first three movements of the Tschaikovsky suite and tacking them onto the front of 'Theme and Variations' -- a ballet he had created for American Ballet Theatre in 1947 using the final movement from the suite, 'Tema con Variazione'.  The first three sections take place behind a scrim in a hazy, dimly lit, 'ghost' ballroom. The women are in long flowing gowns in shades of lavender with unbound hair and the men are in loose silk trousers with ruffled shirts.  

The opening 'Elegie' was lead by Ask la Cour and Rebecca Krohn.  Ms. Krohn seems uncomfortably miscast as the passionate, romantic 'ideal' woman to Mr. la Cour searching dreamer.  Abi Stafford and Justin Peck could not do much with the lackluster Balanchine choreography for 'Valse Melancolique'.  Georgina Pazcoguin and Troy Schumacher took the spins and leaps of the 'Scherzo' with dare devil speed.  Their final jetes into opposite wings lead to a blackout accompanied by the raising of the scrim (which coupled with the dim lighting always seems like an annoyance by this point in the work).

When the lights blaze on for the 'Tema con Variazioni', we are in a magnificent ballroom with Sterling Hyltin, Andrew Veyette, the four demi-soloist women, and eight corps women symmetrically arrayed in glittering costumes of white, gold and turquoise.  The two principals state the theme, followed by the women.  Variations follow, alternating between the ballerina and her cavalier with support from the demi and corps women.  Unfortunately, Hyltin does not have the technique and strength for this demanding role.  Her footwork and beats are blurred and indistinct and her energy flags noticeably.

The polonaise and finale for the full 26-member cast are always glorious and uplifting.  But they couldn't erase the memories of inadequacies earlier in the performance.  Perhaps an all-Balanchine/Tschaikovsky program looks better on paper than the reality -- nearly three hours in their company with inadequate musicianship and spotty casting.  Perhaps the season should just have ended with Wendy Whelan's farewell performance instead.