Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly

�Watching Ligeti Move� at Miller Theater

With its year-long menu of new music, early music, and jazz, the Miller Theater�s status as one of New York�s most exciting musical venues is a truism among cognoscenti. This year, the Miller�s stage sports a new dance floor, and, last week, dancers from the New York City and San Francisco Ballet companies tested it out with a trio of recent ballets by Christopher Wheeldon. The music was all Ligeti, and the show was (almost) all great.

The first ballet, �Polyphonia,� is a suite of ten short dances based on Ligeti�s solo piano music. While clearly Wheeldon is attracted to Ligeti�s more tonal side, brutal works like �D�sordre� and the famous �Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale� receive wonderfully imaginative treatments on stage. (You�ll recall the two-note �Mesto� from �Eyes Wide Shut.�) In his �Mesto,� Wheeldon fuses a pair of dancers together with tense, awkward postures that contrast greatly with the more fluid, intimate ones on display earlier (especially in �Arc-en-Ciel�). When the G finally arrives, the dancers break loose � but only to be hammered together again by the indomitable F/F-sharps.

The second ballet, �Morphoses,� is equally sensitive. Miller had the good sense to engage the Flux Quartet to render Ligeti�s First String Quartet, and theirs was easily the evening�s best instrumental performance. Wheeldon finds the perfect visual analog for the tight ascending chromatic scales that open the work: four dancers slowly rise from the floor, and, hands joined in a circle, begin an intricate, undulating dance that ends when the individual instruments find their autonomy. At other moments, females dancers, held in the air, face the audience with their arms extended like crosses: the effect � religious?, indignant?, tragic? � is unforgettable. And yet how it made me feel remains difficult to describe.

This third and final ballet, �Continuum,� returns to the world of Ligeti�s short piano pieces. The fourth and fifth dances, both set to the �Sonatina, Andante from �Five Pieces for Piano Four-Hands�,� were among the evening�s highlights. In the former, dancers Rachel Viselli and David Arce traverse a flame-red stage in a sequence reminiscent of Tamino and Pamina�s journey in �The Magic Flute.� In the latter, the stage turns to blue, and Viselli, poignantly, makes the return trip alone. But the evening�s concluding dance, to �L�escalier du diable,� is perhaps the most arresting. As the final piano crash decays in the pedal, the entire company, in silhouette, slowly lowers to the stage; they raise their heads and hands upwards and the lights go out. It�s a scene of great austerity and spectacle.

For the entire evening, Wheeldon, a self-described Ligeti-novice, responded to this great composer�s work with unflagging imagination. Ligeti�s music is a beguiling mix of the whimsical, mechanical, and pathetic, and it inhabits a loopy, magical world all its own. Most dance performances I attend � including the good ole Bolshoi this past July � leave me scratching my head; this time I left the theater satisfied, and let�s hope the Miller keeps its dance floor jumping with terrific work like this in the future.

posted by David Salvage 10/02/2005