Two star choreographers create a fascinating double ballet evening with music by Ravel, Stravinsky, and Sibelius

  • Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky were not only friends – they were also both asked by Sergei Diaghilev, the legendary founder and director of the Ballets Russes, to write ballet music for his company. In a double bill, both works are now being brought to the stage by two different choreographers.

    Maurice Ravel’s symphonic poem La Valse is one of his greatest masterpieces. However, choreographer Stephan Thoss hears much more than just a waltz in it. A kind of melancholy, accompanied by muffled heartbeats and many melodic fragments, a fascinating but also dark atmosphere that repeatedly swings into exuberance. In combination with Ravel’s earlier short composition Pavane pour une infante défunte and Jean Sibelius’ Valse Triste, Thoss develops a choreography that tells the story of remembering and forgetting and – in keeping with the spirit of the waltz – the incessant turning of time, set in a snowy landscape around a couple on different time levels.

  • Igor Stravinsky’s ballet music Le Sacre de Printemps from 1913 is one of the key works of 20th-century music. It marks a turning point in the history of modern dance. While Thoss focuses on the icy snow, choreographer Edward Clug turns to water as the central element of his choreography, which, like a surprising spring rain, washes away the winter and allows new life to sprout from the earth. On stage, water presents a great challenge for the dancers, but at the same time opens up a new dimension of the famous Rite of Spring.

    The musical direction of this extraordinary double ballet evening is in the hands of GMD Ruben Gazarian.

  • Thüringische Landeszeitung; Ostthüringer Zeitung (Sabine Wagner), May 2024
  •  “A ballet evening with music from the orchestra pit can sometimes be an amazing concert experience. The Altenburg Gera Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by General Music Director Ruben Gazarian, masterfully achieves this delicate balance between stage and pit, especially when performing Ravel and Stravinsky.”
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  • Kunst und Technik (Moritz Jähnig), May 2024
  • „Igor Stravinsky’s music, created especially for this purpose, is unique, demanding, pulsating, and physically palpable down to the groin.
  • When GMD Ruben Gazarian performs it with the Philharmonic Orchestra, he captivates his audience from the very first note. “The Worship of the Earth” is not an innocent, folksy melody. You can hear that something is wrong with this cheerfulness. Even in the seemingly harmless first part, Gazarian points to the abyss in this composition. Tempo and pressure signal the deadly events that will inexorably unfold in the spring-like, innocent atmosphere.“