Russian Ballet at Covent Garden — III FOR those who love ballet
the outstanding events of last week were the three performances of Choreartium, Massine's ballet to the music of Brahms' fourth symphony. This work was produced last year, but was not often performed. In my recently published book about ballet I have hedged on the subject of Choreartium. Five or six performances were not in this case sufficient to enable me to make any positive judgement. Moreover, I had doubts concerning the ad- visability of using symphonic music for ballet and concerning the occasional subordination to the music seemingly entailed, no less characteristic of some parts of this ballet than of Les Prisages. But now, on seeing Choreartium afresh, I have no hesitation in saying that it is the greatest achievement in modern ballet, and that, moreover, it is an achievement in which choreography for the first time appears as a major art.
Choreartium has no story. It is described as a choreographic symphony. The title is apt. Rhythm is no less related to human physique than architecture to human proportion. Symphonic structure itself is related to the themes and repe- titions and complications of our lives so often embodied in the necessity of thematic and repetitive movements. Choreo- graphic structure suggests symphonic structure in plastic form, even when the music employed is a suite. The emphasis of this statement is upon " the plastic form." We do not want dancing that approximates to the condition of music. Choreartium does not so much express or interpret Brahms. Such a conception of dancing would be foreign to ballet. When Massine's choreography reinforces the music with expressive movement, noticeable especially in the andante moderato, we yet are witnessing something objective that con- trols and enhances the emotive element to Michelangelesque stature ; we are witnessing the geometry, the architecture that corresponds with Brahms' symphony as well as movements that express it. To this end all the virtuosity of ballet dancing is exploited. It is a most wonderful juxtaposition, these flying and pirouetting dancers, this Massine carried swiftly through in the attitude of a Hermes, these classical ballet poses, this blitheness, these contained acts of extreme pride and virtuosity, this Mediterranean geometry that fixes in the open, before the eyes, relieves of afterthought, the deep, blue- serge and introspective grandeur of Brahms' fourth symphony. Emotional music endures thus. I am reminded of the manner in which Piero della Francesca, painting the grievous theme of Christ's flagellation, made the figure of Christ more column- shaped than the column to which he is tied, translated the ignoble scene, without loss of its poignancy, to appear no less contained than an episode from Homer in the hall of an Aegean palace.
Still, is it pleasing for musicians to have the most " intel- lectual " music thus fixed before their eyes, to have the drama- tization of the mental flow (the essence of " pure " music) thus translated into terms of space ? I have no room to discuss the matter at length. -For me it is a wonderful, unhoped-for, achievement that Brahms' symphony should successfully be made an outward thing. After all, plastic associations cannot be divorced from our experiences of even Brahms or Beethoven. At a concert we watch the drilled movement of the players and those of that feeble dancer, the conductor. In most of our minds, particular music is asso- ciated with particular incidents of time and place, with some atmosphere or rhythm of our visual experience.. Some people see colours when notes are struck. Think of the alliances of music with the performance of the Mass (a kind of ballet), with every form of the dance and with the theatre. But let- other choreographers beware. Massine's Choreartium is, for the moment, the culmination of many glories, both his and- of others, the product of long experience amid the triumphs of modern ballet. Our own choreographers cannot be expected to understand fully the sources as well as the scope of this art, so swiftly has it grown in recent years. Possibly Massine alone can chain Germanic themes to the triumphal car of ballet.
ADRIAN STORES.
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