The New York City Ballet won’t be the only ballet in New York City this week. Here is just a sampling of some of the classic arts events happening this week:
New York City Ballet’s fall season will open September 17 with “Masters at Work,” a program featuring three ballets by the company’s co-founding choreographers: George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 and Duo Concertant; and Jerome Robbins’ Glass Pieces. Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 was originally performed in 1941 under the title Ballet Imperial with grand Russian-inspired sets and costumes. Balanchine revised the work in 1973, removing the sets and costumes and letting the dance and the music stand on their own. Duo Concertant is a neoclassical pas de deux set to Stravinsky’s neoclassical composition for violin and piano. Glass Pieces is set to the music of Philip Glass, including two movements from Glassworks, and excerpts from the opera Akhnaten.
Following this season opener, NYCB will present “Eclectic NYCB,” beginning September 19, featuring ballets by four different choreographers: Balanchine’s Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée,’ Lar Lubovitch’s Each In Their Own Time, Christopher Wheeldon’s This Bitter Earth, and Jerome Robbins’ The Four Seasons. This will be the NYCB premiere of Each In Their Own Time, set to music by Brahms, which was originally created for NYCB Principal Dancers Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon, and had its world premiere at City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in 2021. The Balanchine piece is an excerpt from Stravinsky’s full-length ballet Le Baiser de la Fée, while the Robbins piece is expanded from the ballet scene from Verdi's opera Les vêpres siciliennes, supplemented with additional ballet music from the French versions of I Lombardi and Il Trovatore.
New York City Center’s 2024 Fall for Dance Festival begins September 18. The two-week festival will feature performances from 15 different companies across five different programs, including the world premieres of three commissioned works by Herman Cornejo, Cameron Fraser-Monroe, and Tiler Peck. Featured companies will include the National Ballet of Ukraine, Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and the Dutch National Ballet.
The London City Ballet visits the Joyce Theater September 17-22, bringing with it four U.S. premieres: Ashley Page’s Larina Waltz, set to an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; Liam Scarlett’s Consolations & Liebestraum, set to the piano works of the same name by Liszt; Arielle Smith’s Five Dances, set to music by John Adams; and Christopher Marney’s Eve, which tells the biblical story of Eve and the Serpent to an original score by Jennie Muskett.
Ken-David Masur will lead the New York Philharmonic in an eclectic program September 19 and 21, including the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’ Bebop Kaleidoscope — Homage to Duke Ellington, an NY Philharmonic commission. The program will also include Ellington’s own Harlem, selections from Bach’s orchestral suites as arranged by Mahler, Blumine from Mahler’s first symphony, the prelude to Richard Strauss’ rarely-heard early opera Guntram, and Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber. After the September 21 performance, Tiler Peck will join musicians from the Philharmonic for a late-night Kravis Nightcap performance, featuring works by Bach, Stravinsky, and Betsy Jolas.
The American Classical Orchestra will kick off its 40th anniversary season September 18 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Conductor Thomas Crawford will lead the orchestra in a program of classical-era classics including Mozart’s Andante in C Major for Flute and Orchestra, featuring soloist Sandra Miller. The concert will conclude with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
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