{"id":581,"date":"2015-01-22T20:21:10","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T01:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=581"},"modified":"2015-01-22T20:21:10","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T01:21:10","slug":"what-are-ballet-conductors-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2015\/01\/what-are-ballet-conductors-for.html","title":{"rendered":"What Are Ballet Conductors For?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sergei-prokofiev-228x300.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/sergei-prokofiev-228x300-228x300.jpg\" alt=\"sergei-prokofiev-228x300\" width=\"228\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-582\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nWhat is the function of the conductor in ballet performance? Never in my (limited) experience has this question been more provocatively posed than during the Mariinsky Ballet\u2019s recent residency at BAM. This is because two of ballet\u2019s most stirring symphonic scores \u2013 Tchaikovsky\u2019s <em>Swan Lake<\/em> and Prokofiev\u2019s <em>Cinderella<\/em> \u2013 were purveyed in the pit by a world-class orchestra under the leadership of a master conductor. The orchestra was the same great Mariinsky band that next performs Prokofiev and Shostakovich at Carnegie Hall. The conductor was Valery Gergiev, who now presides over the big Mariinsky ballets as he does when the Mariinsky gives the operas of Mussorgsky or the concertos of Rachmaninoff or the symphonies of Mahler.<\/p>\n<p>Gergiev\u2019s <em>Swan Lake<\/em> is a distinguished musical achievement, but his <em>Cinderella<\/em> is something else: unique and unforgettable. His St. Petersburg orchestra has the most distinctive symphonic sonority to be heard today. Its dark textures and fullness of tone are what the Prokofiev ballets crave; a disturbing claustrophobic intensity \u2013 surely Stalinist in provenance \u2013 is composed into these scores (think of how <em>Cinderella<\/em> begins). And Gergiev secures, as well, an unflagging tidal impetus. The big waltz, the clock scene (progeny of <em>Boris Godunov<\/em>) are propelled with an elemental energy.<\/p>\n<p>Over at American Ballet Theatre, the Prokofiev ballets sound thinner and more generic. They aren\u2019t as quick, the tempos are steadier, the colors and dynamics are everywhere more neutral. Above all, they defer to the dancers. Gergiev commandeers the stage as he would conducting opera. It bears mentioning, as well, that the Mariinsky supplied some 75 players in the BAM pit, whereas ABT fields a substantially smaller instrumental complement in a house (that of the Metropolitan Opera) twice as large. Another thing: there is no stopping for applause during the Gergiev <em>Cinderella<\/em>: the musical statement preserves its integrity.<\/p>\n<p>I am aware of the complaints that Gergiev\u2019s tempos are inconsiderately quick, that he tramples the dancers\u2019 prerogatives. And what about the music\u2019s prerogatives? When Hans Knappertsbusch conducted the <em>Ring<\/em> at Bayreuth in the 1950s and \u201860s, his slow tempos made the singers audibly uncomfortable. But Knappertsbusch remained a popular and undeflectable fixture, because those tempos secured a magisterial template that fed the whole. I cannot believe that the Mariinsky dancers don\u2019t benefit from the potency of a significant musical reading, whatever the rigors it imposes.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, hearing such a <em>Cinderella <\/em>emanating from a theater pit is a new experience \u2013 and not only in New York. In Russia too (I am reliably told), there is no precedent for concert conductors of international stature regularly leading ballet.<\/p>\n<p>When Prokofiev endowed <em>Cinderella<\/em> with a score of the highest distinction, he surely intended a Gesamtkunstwerk, not another <em>Paquita<\/em> or <em>Don Quixote<\/em>. I am no informed judge of the dancing and choreography (by Alexei Ratmansky) of the Mariinsky <em>Cinderella<\/em> performances at BAM. But it seemed to me on January 20 that the dancers held their own with the music, and that the result was bigger than the sum of its parts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the function of the conductor in ballet performance? Never in my (limited) experience has this question been more provocatively posed than during the Mariinsky Ballet\u2019s recent residency at BAM. This is because two of ballet\u2019s most stirring symphonic scores \u2013 Tchaikovsky\u2019s Swan Lake and Prokofiev\u2019s Cinderella \u2013 were purveyed in the pit by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-9n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}