The Liebeslieder Connection

I've often been asked how I became entranced with ballet -- specifically New York City Ballet -- and I always tell the story of my entanglement with Brahms 'Liebeslieder Waltzes'.

I started taking piano lessons from Mrs. Mabel Carter when I was in first grade.  Every year I would play a new more advanced piece in Mrs. Carter's annual recital.  In junior high, I switched to Miss Alice Calvert because she was just across the street from Paris Gibson Junior High School and participated in Miss Calvert's recitals each year.  Since she taught voice as well, these would have been a mix of vocal and piano music.

I stopped piano lessons during my freshman year at Great Falls High School, but picked them up again during my sophomore year, studying with Mrs. Edna Jorgenson (who we all called Jorgie).  Jorgie encouraged playing pieces for multiple pianists -- 1 piano-4 hands; 2 pianos-4 hands; and 2 pianos-8 hands.  As the only boy in Jorgie's stable, I was sought after for these group efforts and played in all three forms over the next three years with a variety of partners -- Pat  Shorey, Jordis Erickson, and Marylynn Olson among them.

At one of Jorgie's annual recitals, two older girls played Brahms' 'Liebeslieder Waltzes', Opus 52 (without the vocal quartet -- we knew no better in Montana in the 50's).  I was immediately smitten with these gorgeous miniatures and determined to encounter them again.

When I got to Dartmouth I stopped taking piano lessons during my first two years and concentrated on singing in the Glee Club.  In my junior year I began taking piano lessons from Madame Lydia Hoffman-Behrendt, a well-known pianist who had fled Germany with her architect husband in the 30's.  She had many excellent students, including my roommate that year, John McSherry, who was the accompanist of the Glee Club and had played a recital at Carnegie Recital Hall before coming to Dartmouth.  With Madame Behrendt I studied several pieces by Brahms over the next three years.

During my senior year at Dartmouth, I decided to skip Winter Carnival and headed to New York City for a long weekend.  In the New York Times I saw an advertisement for New York City Ballet that they were performing 'Brahms' Liebeslieder-Waltzer' and I attended that performance at City Center in the winter of 1962.

What a revelation!  Eight graceful dancers; two wonderful pianists and four singers in a lovely Biedermeier parlor setting making this treasured music visual. Balanchine's ability to 'see the music' was truly there for me that evening.  I wish that I had saved the program, but surely among the eight dancers were Jillana, Melissa Hayden, Violet Verdy, Conrad Ludlow and Jacques d'Amboise.  (Maybe someday I'll take the time to find it at the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center.)

Here are some photos from the 2012 New York City Ballet casts:

Megan Fairchild & Chase Finlay (debuts 5/19/12) by Kolnik

Robert Fairchild (Megan's brother) & Sterling Hyltin (debuts 5/19/12) by Kolnik

Tyler Peck & Justin Peck (not related) (debuts 5/19/12) by Kolnik

Sebastien Marcovici & Janie Taylor (5/21/12 - the night he proposed to her) by Kolnik

I went back to Hanover determined to study the Opus 52 set of waltzes.  Mme. Behrendt  taught it to George Olsen (a classmate who was attending the Dartmouth Medical School) and me the following winter when we were both in graduate school in Hanover.  For a recital, she insisted that it needed to be done 'correctly' with a vocal quartet which she recruited.  She did allow us to use two pianos since we were alternating between the upper and lower registers between waltzes (George played all of the most difficult parts).  We performed Brahms 'Liebeslieder Waltzes, Opus 52' at a recital at the new Hopkins Center for the Arts as part of my Amos Tuck School graduation weekend.

I also played the Chopin's 'Waltz No.7 In C Sharp Minor, Op.64 No.2'  which I had undertaken as a means of perfecting two-against-three timing.  Lo and behold in 1969 this piece also turned up at NYC Ballet in Jerome Robbins' 'Dances at a Gathering'. 

So I have to say that it was 'the Liebeslieder connection' that led me over many years to New York City Ballet.  And it's the love of music that keeps me going regularly, because on a good night you really do 'see the music' there. 

Comparing Westminster Abbey with Beverley Minster

In contrast to yesterday's photos of the West Front of Beverley Minster, here are three pictures of the West Front of Westminster Abbey in London taken during our trip to Paris & London in March and April 2011.  The first is a close-up of the West Door of the Abbey (unlike Beverley you can never get a picture of Westminster without a crowd in front):

West Door of Westminster Abbey, 4/2011, Blomme/McClure

You'll note that the doorway arch is a simple pointed Gothic arch set fairly deeply into a square surround, rather than the more elaborate, but less deep-set ogee arch at Beverley which seems almost flamboyant in contrast.   There is a single row of statues above the Westminster door, rather than the double row at Beverley.  These are modern statues of 20th century martyrs (including Martin Luther King) rather than the statues of biblical kings, prophets and saints at Beverley which are probably the early 15th century originals. 

Central Section of West Front of Westminster Abbey, April, 2011, Blomme/McClure

As we move back at The Abbey, the resemblance to Beverley's composition becomes more apparent.  The large, single window in a pointed arch is almost identical to the west window at Beverley and it is flanked by two narrower panels which accentuate the perpendicular aspect of the composition.

West Front of Westminster Abbey, April, 2011, Blomme/McClure

The full facade of the Abbey's west front shows all of the parallel vertical lines that are the primary feature of Perpendicular English Gothic architecture.  The twin towers are much less bulky than the ones at Beverley, perhaps due to better design and engineering at the Abbey -- where they were added in only 1720 to 1745 (designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor).  The west towers at Beverley were completed over 300 years earlier, about 1420. 

Note how insignificant the west door is in the overall composition -- even though it's the 'royal' door used by kings and queens going to and from their coronations, weddings, baptisms, etc.

Looking at Beverley Minster

I've been using this picture of the main West Door of Beverley Minster as my desktop background this month:

West Door of Beverley Minster, September, 1984, Blomme/McClure

It has prompted me to look back at the pictures that we took of the Minster when we visited Beverley on a driving trip through England in September of 1984.  Beverley is in the East Yorkshire Downs, between York and Hull (where we caught the overnight ferry for Belgium).

The door and surrounds in the photo are part of the West Front ensemble done in English Perpendicular Gothic.  It was probably completed around 1420 during the final phase of the rebuilding of the church that started 200 years earlier in 1220.  The tower over the crossing of an earlier church had collapsed around 1213 destroying most of the earlier building.  The entire building was rebuilt in three different Gothic styles which came into fashion in England over the two centuries it took to complete the new building: Early, Decorated, and Perpendicular.

Here are our two more pictures we took of the West Front: 

Beverley Minster, Central Section of West Front, 9/1984, Blomme/McClure

West Front of Beverley Minster from the SE, 9/1984, Blomme/McClure

It is believed to be the inspiration for the West Front of Westminster Abbey in London.

What is a minster?  It's an English term for a major church that is not the seat of an archbishop or a bishop, which would usually make it a 'cathedral' (but not always).  It's bigger and more important than a 'parish church'.

Beverley is pronounced 'BEE-vur-lee' by the English.

 

Matinee of George Balanchine's 'The Nutcracker'

On Saturday, December 7th, we saw 'The Nutcracker' with our nephew and his family.  I was looking forward to seeing a cast with several new faces (for us) in the featured roles and an interesting pairing for the Sugarplum and her Cavalier (Ashley Bouder & Tyler Angle).

Clotilde Otranto conducted the overture (in fact the entire performance) at a brisk pace. I've always missed Robert Irving's conducting of the NYC Ballet orchestra, nevermore than during the company's annual 'Nutcracker' season.  He always seemed to be using the overture to make sure that he had the orchestra's full attention for the entire performance -- adding different phrasings and rubato at each playing and introducing variety of tempi and volume during musical repeats.  As a result, he always had the best rapport between the pit and the stage and was able to truly 'conduct' the performance of both the orchestra and the dancers.  Maestra Otranto seems the best of the current conducting staff, but I would hold up Maestro Irving as the gold standard.

Act I (which for viewers like us who have seen 'The Nutcracker' at least once a year for more than 46 years can seem long and boring) was surprisingly lively and entertaining. David Prottas' Drosselmeier is carefully conceived as an eccentric, but ultimately warm-hearted member of the family.  He's not afraid to play him as a generally younger, less crotchety bachelor, who interacts playfully with the children without the sinister undertones that can make others in the role seem a little too creepy.

In the Party Scene there's always so much activity that it can be hard to know where to look.  Sean Suozzi and Gretchen Smith as Dr. & Frau Stahlbaum were gracious hosts and stern, but loving parents, and Claire Von Enck & Austin Bachman were genial and engaged grandparents with only minimal signs senility or infirmity.  Spartak Hoxha was crisp and buoyant as the Toy Soldier.  The children of the School of American Ballet (SAB) acquitted themselves very well in the dancing and the mime, although Henry Berlin seems unusually tall for the mischievous little brother, Fritz.

The transformation of the Christmas Tree and the Battle with the Mice passed without a hitch.  Max Landegger as the Nephew/Nutcracker/Prince defended Rommie Tomasini's Marie gallantly and she threw her shoe at the Mouse King with good aim and timing.

Finally, the dance of the Snowflakes arrived.  Balanchine's swirling, crystalline patterns for the sixteen snowflakes coupled with the ever more densely falling snow are the very essence of winter and one of the glories of this production.  All sixteen ballerinas held onto their snowball props (we've come to expect at least one to end up on the stage -- creating an additional hazard amidst the accumulating drifts of fake snow).  The only disappointment was that the recorded choir voices were slightly out of sync with orchestra -- calling attention away from the stage to the pit where Maestra Otranto was attempting to dial back the fast pace she had set earlier in the scene.

Act II, set in 'the Kingdom of the Sweets', is weighted heavily toward dance.  The 12 little angels, gliding to Otranto's fast tempo, were adorable and precise as Rockettes.  Ashley Bouder, as the Sugarplum Fairy and ruler of this realm, has technique to spare, but I always wish that she would lose the smugness and that cocky glance at the audience when she finishes an especially difficult sequence with an astonishing balance held just short of forever.  Her interactions with the little angels seems more noblesse oblige than affectionate concern.

Once all of the sweets had assembled to greet Marie, now the Little Princess, and her Prince, Max Landegger gave a very clear reading of the mime scene describing his victory over the Mouse King.  Many years ago, we attended a seminar at SAB where Peter Boal taught the mime to a young student and explained each gesture to the audience.  Peter, who learned the mime for the Nephew/Nutcracker/Prince directly from Balanchine in the 70's, went on, of course, to a distinguished career dancing at NYCB and teaching at SAB before becoming Artistic Director of Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.  It's a pleasure to see that the tradition continues to be passed on to each succeeding generation of Nutcracker Princes.

The suite of dances for the sweets generally went well.  Mary Elizabeth Sell and Andrew Scordato led Hot Chocolate with elan, although Andrew's precariously anchored hat went flying off during the final moments.  Megan LeCrone seemed a little under-powered as Coffee and could have had both more tautness and allure.  Harrison Ball as Tea seemed to tire near the end of his long series of air splits, but was otherwise incisive.  Troy Schumacher led the Candy Canes (aka 'Hoops') with high-flying vigor and precision. Lauren King rendered the difficult pointe work of the Marzipan Shepherdess with a delicacy and aplomb that twinkled with charm.  Cameron Dieck as Mother Ginger was less outrageous and more demure than many we have seen, turning much of the spotlight to the well-drilled Polichinelles from SAB.

Megan Fairchild's Dewdrop was a revelation.  Her dancing has often seemed self-contained and drab, but here, leading the Waltz of the Flowers, she was expansive and vivid, filling the stage space with a luminous and musically persuasive rendering of this iconic Balanchine role.  We've seen a long list of extraordinary ballerinas as the Dewdrop -- Schorer, McBride, Leland, Whelan, Nichols, Bouder, Mearns, to name a few -- and Megan deserves a place of honor on that list.  The entire Flowers ensemble deserves mention for their beautifully nuanced support of Megan's scintillating performance.

Ashley Bouder and Tyler Angle followed with a stunning grand pas de deux for the Sugarplum Fairy and her Cavalier.  Tyler's strong, assured partnering gives Ashley the luxury of taking every risk and displaying every technical feat.  No ballerina we've seen since McBride (with Irving in the pit and Villella in support) gets the timing of the two multiple supported pirouettes into backbend completely in sync with the music, but Ashley and Tyler came close.  With Tyler's stalwart, steady support, Ashley executed a deep arabesque penchee while riding the metal plate en pointe that drew a collective gasp from the audience.  Their pdd ended with Tyler throwing Ashley high and then catching her triumphantly in a deep fish dive.  

The coda gives each performer in the Act II cast a chance for one last display of virtuosity. Megan Fairchild came through with a beautifully timed and sustained series of unsupported pirouettes and Tyler carried Ashley around the stage in a series of elegantly floating lifts.

Here's a picture of Megan Fairchild as the Sugarplum Fairy (couldn't locate a Dewdrop):

Megan Fairchild as the Sugarplum, New York City Ballet facebook page (probably by Kolnik)

SATURDAY MATINEE, DECEMBER 7, 2:00 PM
(Conductor: Otranto)
SUGARPLUM: Bouder; CAVALIER: T. Angle; DEWDROP: M. Fairchild; HERR DROSSELMEIER: Prottas; MARZIPAN: King; HOT CHOCOLATE: Sell, Scordato; COFFEE: LeCrone; TEA: Ball; CANDY CANE: Schumacher; MOTHER GINGER: Dieck; FLOWERS: Isaacs, Adams; DOLLS: Woodward, MacKinnon; SOLDIER: Hoxha; MOUSE KING: Thew; DR & FRAU STAHLBAUM: Smith, Suozzi