NYCB Vol. 15 No. 10 - Vienna Waltzes

"George Balanchine’s Vienna Waltzes was given for the first time this season, in one of its very best performances, Tuesday night by the New York City Ballet at the State Theater. Like a rich dessert, Vienna Waltzes can only be savored as an occasional item on the ballet menu. It can be too much. It can grow sweet, even sticky. It is the leading pop ballet in the City Ballet repertory and is always a sellout."

Photo by Martha Swope, 1977.

"But layer cakes have several levels, and when the ingredients all come to gether as they did at this performance, a ballet like Vienna Waltzes shows its superb value precisely because it functions on several levels at once. What Mr. Balanchine has done is give us a grand tour of the waltz in both step and pattern. Pattern predominates over step in the first of the three selections from Johann Strauss the Elder. And yet in the hands of the Balanchine genius, the waltz takes on different meanings, different styles, as it takes on different composers.

"Throughout these formal variations, there is one theme. Love. Vienna Waltzes is a romantic ballet, and its high Romanticism is the other side of the objectivist we know as George Balanchine. Repeatedly the image of a partner seeking out his ideal recurs in Vienna Waltzes. Vienna Waltzes is a series of love stories.

Karin Von Aroldingen & Sean Lavery. Photos by Martha Swope, 1977.

"Karin von Aroldingen, who is always outstanding in the opening Vienna Woods section and Sean Lavery outdid themselves on this occasion. There was a wonderful new playful quality here to this last sunny afternoon among the Hapsburgs. Even every member of the ensemble smiled. Every diagonal, every circle, every sweep carried along a new joyfulness.

Patricia McBride & Helgi Tomasson. Photos by Fred Fehl (sides) and Martha Swope (center) 1977.

"The condensed 19th-century Romantic ballet that Mr. Balanchine has composed for the "Voices of Spring" has always been superbly danced by Patricia McBride and Helgi Tomasson. Yet they too reached for something extra this time, Miss McBride made the whole section one continuous magic whirl. The continuum of the choreography was unbroken and the yearning phrases of her solo were the perfect counterpoint to the virtuosity of her multiple pirouettes. As for Mr. Tomasson, one can only repeat that he is again dancing in the best of his classical form this year, and this is considerable. Quite simply, he is one of the very few great classical dancers in the world today. The purity of his elegant silhouette — in the air — as he covered half the stage in one side jump, was proof enough. Excitement and elegance - and the audience responded to him and Miss McBride accordingly.

Bart Cook and Sara Leland. Photos by Martha Swope, 1977.

Bart Cook and Sara Leland. Photo by Fred Fehl, 1977.

"Sara Leland and Bart Cook led the "Explosions Polka" as the fun entry it is. A group of midinettes and their swains on a day off?

Peter Martins and Kay Mazzo. Photos by Martha Swope, 1977.

"The mood changes with the Lehar section, a distillation of a Merry Widow plot. Possibly the only tongue-in-cheek section except for its final embrace, the scene exudes its drama through step more than acting. Kay Mazzo and Peter Martins as the widow and the baron in search of a rich wife have polished the vignette remarkably.

Jorge Donn and Suzanne Farrell. Photos by Martha Swope, 1977. Top left by Fred Fehl.

"But it is the haunted ballroom that Richard Strauss has conjured up to Mr. Balanchine that leaves the strongest dramatic impact. Suzanne Farrell reacts differently to Adam Lüders as her phantom partner than to others in the role. It is startling to see this dazed woman fall in love before our very eyes. Every arch of the back telegraphs the point. A superb performance from both dancers.

—Anna Kisselgoff, New York Times, 1980