Word: mazurka
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With reasonable security, he has worked on building his repertory selectively. This fall's new works, Excursions, a lusty frontier-style piece, and Mazurka, to Chopin's music, are his most popular premieres since his 1969 ballroom ballet, Intermezzo. Mazurka is technically ferocious. But, says Feld, "with its angular line and hot and cold jazz rhythms, the ballet is like caviar...
...dancers taking on his flights of ferocity. "I believe in good dancers, better dancers and great dancers," he says. Like Balanchine, he wants a starless troupe, but whether he likes it or not, Christine Sarry easily stands out. As the mercurial waif of Excursions or the buoyant ballerina of Mazurka, she is fleet-spirited and light-legged...
...knowing that Chopin calls for rubato tend to throw it on as if with a trowel, distorting the basic metrical life of the music and making the melodies sound maudlin and oversentimental. I find it's not a bad idea, while playing practically anything of Chopin, to have the Mazurka, the most intricate of Polish forms, in the back of one's mind. Incidentally, the third movement of the concerto is referred to in one of Chopin's letters as a 'potpourri of Polish airs,' and mazurka rhythms are more or less everywhere (although I hear Spanish music, quite interestingly...