Stern leads the orchestra through Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in tune with Balanchine’s ballet on July 26
Orchestra music and ballet have shared a perfect pairing for centuries, but it’s rare in modern times to witness a live orchestra accompanying a live ballet. This Friday, for the first time in history, the National Repertory Orchestra partners with the Vail Dance Festival for a special Opening Night performance in Vail.
“The onus will be on me and the musicians to adhere to exactly what the dancers need in terms of tempo, pauses and nuances,” says NRO Music Director Michael Stern. “It’s a different art than simply conducting an orchestra or even accompanying singers in an opera. You have to be deeply in tune with the dancers to proactively provide what they need. Once they make a move, we have to be ready to match it musically. I’m very much looking forward to it.”
The Colorado Ballet with guest stars from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre will perform Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine’s groundbreaking Serenade as Stern leads the orchestra though Russian composer Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famed Serenade for Strings in C major.
“The Tchaikovsky Serenade is a marvelous example of Tchaikovsky’s craft,” Stern says. “This piece was not written for ballet, but Tchaikovsky innately understood ballet. Each movement in this piece is intensively danceable.”
Written in 1880, the Serenade for Strings features four movements. The first movement is a complex, stirring piece in the style of Mozart that builds from a sampling of strings to a climax of all instruments. The second is a waltz and the third a slow, mournful elegy. The final movement is a lighthearted Russian dance with ascending bursts. In this Balanchine performance, however, the NRO will swap the third and final movements to accommodate the mood and story of the ballet.
“There’s a lilt, a feeling of emotion in this music, a kind of inevitable propulsion in first and last movements,” Stern says. “Of course, the waltz is a deliciously danceable. Even in the elegy, it’s this feeling of breath and emotion that is always at the heart of great music and certainly has to inform every gesture by the dancers. Part of Balanchine’s genius was understanding the musicality of the dance.”
Premiering in June 1934, Balanchine’s Serenade is celebrating its 90th anniversary.
“It was a revolution, a watershed moment in American dance. It was an evolutionary work for him. Of course, the fact he could take it from the old world and make it utterly new for mid-century America was very original. The ballet continues to be timeless,” Stern says.
The NRO accompanies Colorado Ballet and star dancers from New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre for the Vail Dance Festival’s Opening Night performance on Friday, July 26. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. at Gerald Ford Amphitheater in Vail. Tickets start at $32 and are available at vaildance.org. This performance is part of the NRO’s Summer Music Festival with over 100 events from June 22-Aug. 10, including a July 27 performance in Breckenridge featuring the original rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings as well as a soloists-enhanced performance of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante and Benjamin Britten’s powerful Four Sea Interludes. For more information go to nromusic.org.
Photo: George Balanchine’s Serenade at the 2017 Vail Dance Festival. Choreography by George Balanchine. © The George Balanchine Trust. Photo by Erin Baiano.