“Concerto Barocco”, “Kammermusik No. 2”, “Raymonda Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 20, 2023
by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2023 by Mary Cargill
The three ballets on this all-Balanchine program were all abstract responses to music with energetic corps and intense pas de deux, yet each ballet had its own distinctive character. “Concerto Barocco”, from 1941, is one of Balanchine’s greatest works, a jazzy take on Bach, celebrating female dancing (the lone male turns up briefly to partner one of the ballerinas and then disappears), the spiky “Kammermusik No. 2”, one of Balanchine’s last ballets (it premiered in 1978), an inversion of sorts of “Concerto Barocco”, with its eight male corps members mirroring the earlier ballet’s eight female corps, and “Raymonda Variations” (from 1961), a spun sugar salute to Petipa.
Mira Nadon and Emilie Gerrity in "Kammermusik No. 2" photo © Erin Biano