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Stravinsky Times Four

"Dances Concertantes", "The Cage", "Concertino", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 24, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

The evening featured four ballets set to Stravinsky, two by Balanchine (“Dances Concertantes” and “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”) and two by Robbins (“The Cage” and “Concertino”).  Though they shared the same composer, the ballets were all different, and it made for a varied evening.  

Ashley Laracey and Joseph Gordon in Balanchine's "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" photo © Erin Baiano

Color Coded

"Concerto Barocco", "Allegro Brillante", "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 23, 2025

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2025 by Mary Cargill

This all-Balanchine evening showed off three ballets, each with its own distinctive flavor; “Concerto Barocco” has a luminous white and black simplicity, “Allegro Brillante” is a bright and golden celebration of classical technique, and “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet” with its haunted-ballroom mauve setting, is an elegiac valentine to a lost (and somewhat imaginary) world.  There were two debuts, Miriam Miller, commanding as the second violin in “Concerto Barocco”, and Alec Knight, a stalwart partner in the Intermezzo of “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet”.  It was also a demonstration of Balanchine’s love of geometry, as the well-rehearsed corps formations wove through intricate, ever-shifting waves of patterns.

New York City Ballet dancers in "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet" photo © Erin Baiano