Marina Harss at the Hudson Review:
There are works of art that have the reputation of being a bore. Jerome Robbins’ Goldberg Variations is one of them. After its premiere in 1971, Arlene Croce, the lapidary (and brilliant) critic declared it to be “ninety minutes at hard labor,” and George Balanchine, whom Robbins idolized and considered his artistic superior, is said to have compared it to homogenized milk.[1] Robbins himself seems to have had doubts about it, describing the process of making it to a friend as akin to “hacking my way to the end,” though he later changed his mind.
New York City Ballet seldom brings it back. At nearly an hour and a half—even longer than his Dances at a Gathering—without an intermission, it’s not easy to program. A recent development has paved the way to its return: the occasional programming of two long ballets rather than three shorter ones, separated by a single intermission. And thus, Goldberg Variations has quietly re-entered the building. I watched it twice last season, struck each time not only by its tranquil mastery and deep musical understanding, but also by the way it shows the company, the individual qualities of its dancers as well as the relationships between them. Its power, like that of Bach’s series of variations, accumulates slowly, moment by moment. By the end, as the original theme returns, you are left with the feeling of having experienced a great arc, a fully realized idea explored in all its possibilities and permutations. It is, I think, a great work.
more here.
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