BALANCHINE
THE PIONEER AND THE VISIONARY
classical company, American Ballet Caravan, for a five-month good-will tour of South America. In the repertory were two major new Balanchine works, Concerto Barocco and Ballet Imperial (later renamed Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2). But after the tour this company, too, disbanded, and the dancers were forced to find work elsewhere. Between 1944 and 1946 Balanchine was engaged to revitalize Sergei Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo after the departure of Massine. There he choreographed Danses Concertantes (1944), Raymonda, and Night Shadow (later called La Sonnambula, both in 1946), while reviving Concerto Barocco, Le Baiser de la Fée, Serenade, Ballet Imperial, and Card Party (renamed Jeu de Cartes). Many of Balanchine's most important early works were introduced to America at large by the Ballet Russe, which toured the length and breadth of the country for nine months of the year.
In 1946 Balanchine and Kirstein formed Ballet Society,
presenting to small New York subscription-only audiences such new Balanchine
works as The Four Temperaments (1946) and Orpheus (1948). On
the strength Orpheus, praised as one of New York's premiere cultural
events of the year, Morton Baum, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the
New York City Center of Music and Drama, invited the company to join City
Center (of which the New York City Drama Company and the New York City Opera
were already a part). With the performance of October 11, 1948, consisting of
Concerto Barocco, Orpheus, and Symphony in C
(created for the Paris Opera Ballet as Le Palais de Cristal the
previous year), the New York City Ballet was born. Balanchine's talents had at
last found a permanent home. From that time until his death in 1983,
Balanchine served as ballet master for the New York City Ballet,
choreographing the majority of the productions the Company has introduced from
its inception to the present day. An authoritative catalogue of Balanchine's
output lists 425 works, beginning with La Nuit and ending with
Variations for Orchestra (1982), a solo for Suzanne Farrell. In between,
he created a body of work as extensive as it was diverse. Among his notable
ballets were Firebird and Bourrée Fantasque (1949;
Firebird restaged with Jerome Robbins in 1970); La Valse (1951);
Scotch Symphony (1952); The Nutcracker (his first full-length
work for the company), Western Symphony, and Ivesiana
(1954); Allegro Brillante (1956); Agon (1957); Stars and
Stripes and The Seven Deadly Sins (1958); Episodes
(1959, choreographed with Martha Graham); Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux
and Liebeslieder Walzer (1960); A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1
962); Bugaku and Movements for Piano and Orchestra
Photo: (With Lycette Darsonval in 1947, at the premiere of Palais de cristal at the Paris Opera)
(1963); Don Quixote (in three acts) and Harlequinade (in two acts, both 1965); Jewels (called the first full-length plotless ballet,1967); and Who Cares? (1970). In June, 1972, Balanchine staged an intensive week-long celebration of Stravinsky. Of the twenty-one new works presented during the festival, eight were by Balanchine, including four major ones, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Duo Concertant, Symphony in Three Movements, and Divertimento from "Le Baiser de la Fée." Response to the Stravinsky Festival by critics and the public was overwhelming. In 1975, Balanchine staged a second New York City Ballet Festival, this time a three-week homage to Ravel. This celebration produced sixteen new works by various choreographers, including Balanchine's Tzigane, Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Sonatine. Over the next seven years, Balanchine added more than a dozen works to the New York City Ballet's repertory. First came Union Jack (1976), observing the U.S. Bicentennial by honoring Great Britain, followed by the lavish Vienna Waltzes (1977). Ballo della Regina and Kammermusik