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.