NYCB – Another Week Of Celebrating Balanchine

Tobi Tobias awards NY City Ballet’s current rendition of Balanchine’s Liebeslieder Walzer best-in-show. “At the premiere of Liebeslieder, in 1960, they took the house lights down to half for the extended pause between the two sections. I remember sitting in the hushed twilight and thinking, This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I’ve had little cause to change my mind since, despite casts subsequent to the original one that were not quite as wonderful. To my mind, the company’s current rendition is the finest—the most coherent as an entity, and the most moving—since the ballet’s first season.”