Liebeslieder Walzer at New York City Ballet

(A 2004 photo of New York City Ballet in Liebeslieder Walzer, choreographed
by George Balanchine. Photo by Paul Kolnik.)

It is hard to describe what exactly makes Liebeslieder Walzer such a beautiful work. It's not just a ballet, for even though there is plenty of dancing, the performance of the music is just as important. Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder, op. 144 and Neue Liebeslieder, op. 65 are an intimate, yet enveloping set of waltzes for four-handed piano and a quartet of vocalists. The songs are about about love, its trials and associated emotions – the titles literally translate as love songs, and new love songs – and the sound is at times joyful, at others melancholy and troubled, at others plaintive and longing. There is a huge range of emotions that is suggested simply by the tune, nevermind that the lyrics are in German.

In the dancing and in the movement, there are quiet, emotional subtleties, and with only four couples waltzing around on stage with one another, it all somehow manages to feel enormously romantic and stirring. Balanchine's ballet is more than a mere visualization of Brahms' music: equally romantic dances are layered on top of the music with stirring sensitivity and drama. It's a brilliant pairing of music and steps, with Balanchine's sensitivity for music and his masterful ability to suggest relationships and emotions in through dance. To watch such gorgeous dancing and drama paired with Brahms' glorious music is almost too much to take in at once, it just works so well.

The two parts of Liebeslieder Walzer: (1) The first part in ball gowns, here with
Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici, photo by Paul Kolnik. (2) The second part, with
the women in ballet costumes. Pictured here are Wendy Whelan
and Nilas Martins, photo by Erin Baino.

The first part of the ballet, danced to the Liebeslieder waltzes, has the four couples dancing in elaborate ball gowns and tuxes inside a grand ballroom; the four vocalists and piano are on one side of the stage. The women dance in heeled character shoes, and the waltzing here is very much like 19th century ball dances, though inflected with balletic extensions and lifts. More important are the looks that the dancers exchange with their partners during the various ensemble and individual pas de deux: they seem to be dancing in their own worlds here. It ends with the couples running out of the ballroom's back doors and the curtain falling.

After a brief pause, the curtain lifts and we see the same ballroom, but the lighting is dim and a night sky is seen behind the open doors. The couples are back on stage but this time the women are costumed in knee-length ballet dresses and are wearing pointe shoes. The dancing, too, switches to something much more balletic and Romantic. Of the contrast between the first and second parts, Balanchine has said that in the first part, we see the actual people dancing – in the second, we see their souls. The people are less concretely drawn and the emotions in the dancing more heightened; we went from a ballroom world into a much more spiritual part of romance.

Towards the end of the ballet, each of the couples leaves the stage and returns, dressed again in their ballroom gowns from the first part. They all sit and listen attentively to the music, and the curtain falls as the music ends.

At the performance I attended on Saturday (June 13), I was sitting on the vocalists' side of the auditorium. So I got to hear and feel the music with real immediacy, and the musical performance was just wonderful. The singers were Julianne Borg in the soprano part, Katherine Rohrer the mezzo-soprano, Michael Slattery the tenor and Thomas Meglioranza the baritone. The pianists were Richard Moredock and Susan Walters.

The dancers today were Darci Kistler, Jennie Somogyi, Janie Taylor, Wendy Whelan, Jared Angle, Sebastien Marcovici, Nilas Martins and Philip Neal. I particularly loved Whelan's moments; they were achingly beautiful in the way that she fell into and luxuriated. Darci Kistler looks very good in this ballet, as it does not expose her deteriorating technique quite so glaringly, and her maturity as an artist and understanding of the role really bring out beautiful qualities in the dancing. Needless to say, I loved seeing and hearing this wonderful performance.