SFB: next@90 Concludes on a High Note

Sasha Mukhamedov and Joseph Walsh rehearsing Yuri Possokhov's “Violin Concerto” (photograph by Lindsay Thomas, courtesy of SFB)

Due to a heavy schedule, I was unable to attend the first of the three programs presented by San Francisco Ballet (SFB) under the title next@90. That amounted to viewing six of the nine ballets in the collection, each the world premier of a creation by a different choreographer. In that context only one of those six ballets left me with an enthusiastic sense of satisfaction, and this turned out to be a matter of saving the best for the last. At last night’s first performance of the premieres of the final three ballets, Yuri Possokhov’s “Violin Concerto” emerged as the only satisfying experience in my journey.

Possokhov is SFB Choreographer in Residence, and the title of his ballet refers to the concerto composed by Igor Stravinsky. George Balanchine had previously created choreography for this concerto, and Possokhov knew that choreography well. However, he decided that this was music that could be approached with “fresh eyes.”

Indeed, freshness was the prevailing rhetoric of Possokhov’s choreography. At the same time, it also served as a reflection on how some of Balanchine’s sassiest moves were inspired by Stravinsky’s music. (Personally, I find the sassiest of those moves at the heart of the “Rubies” ballet from the Jewels trilogy.) For that matter, the music itself amounts to a Bronx cheer aimed at a tradition of violin concertos that goes all the way back to the Baroque period.

Indeed, the titles of the four movements are more likely to be associated with Johann Sebastian Bach than with any of the popular nineteenth-century violin concertos. The first movement is a toccata, followed by two “Aria” movements and concluding with a capriccio. Nevertheless, the music presents Stravinsky at his most prankish, and Possokhov seems to have approached the choreography in the spirit that one good prank deserves another. If Stravinsky’s score tends to elicit sly smiles when it is played at a symphony concert, Possokhov’s choreography finds ample room for belly laughs in all four of the concerto movements. Those moves provided a stimulating complement to the sassy violin passages, given a highly satisfying account by concertmaster Cordula Merks.

Furthermore, that choreography is ensemble work at its best. Yes, one can enjoy brief solo turns taken by the individual dancers; but it is the overall geometry of how the dancers are deployed that steals the show. The stage setting for that geometry is kept limited to a series of high walls, each with a ballet barre in the front. The surfaces are used to project music notation and photographs of the composer; and, when the curtain descends at the conclusion we see a photograph of Stravinsky that seems to be beaming with appreciation.

Sadly, neither of the two preceding works came close to matching the many qualities of “Violin Concerto.” Ironically, they were presented in the opposite direction of appearance in the program book; and, if you did not look in the right place in the lobby, you would not have known about this shuffle. Since there was little to register vivid recall in either Claudia Schreier’s “Kin” or Nicolas Blanc’s “Gateway to the Sun,” the order did not seem to matter very much. More important was that Blanc’s choreography was set to what amounted to a concerto for cello and chamber ensemble by Anna Clyne; and Eric Sung gave a dynamite account of the cello part.