Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. During his career he had a considerable reputation as a pianist and composer of virtuoso piano pieces. Sent to Paris to study, he played at Salle Pleyel before his 16th birthday and was praised by Chopin. He was treated as a sensation from the New World at his formal debut in 1849. He toured widely in Europe, playing the piano and conducting orchestras performing his works, before returning to New York and touring the United States. His compositions, using syncopated rhythms, jagged melodic lines and folk dance elements, were precursors of musical developments to occur at the end of the nineteenth century.

Hershy Kay (1919-1981) established himself as a preeminent orchestrator of musicals with Leonard Bernstein’s On The Town in 1944. His works for ballet include Cakewalk, Clowns, Western Symphony, The Concert, Stars and Stripes, Who Cares? and Union Jack; his works for musical theater include Peter Pan, Once Upon a Mattress, Candide, A Chorus Line, Evita, and Barnum. A composer in his own right, Hershy Kay also reconstructed Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Grande Tarantelle for Piano and Orchestra, which later became the Balanchine ballet Tarantella. Mr. Kay’s work also includes a children’s record, Mother Goose.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).

Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

Schumann composed the 18 piano pieces that comprise the Davidsbündlertänze to celebrate his reconciliation with sweetheart Clara Wieck after a 16-month estrangement in 1837; the work was published, at his own expense, the next year. The title, which literally translates as “Dances of the League of David,” refers to an imaginary society of artists created by Schumann whose members represent different aspects of his personality. Their common aim: to fight the Philistines, those who oppose art or innovation in the arts.

To many scholars Robert Schumann (1810-1856) represents the quintessential Romantic composer, both for the emphasis on lyrical self-expression in his work, and for the emotional turbulence that characterized his life (his wooing and eventual winning of his wife Clara — one of the great pianists of the time — reads like a nineteenth-century novel). Known primarily for the genius of his piano pieces and lieder, Schumann also wrote music criticism and headed a circle that included much of Germany’s musical elite, including Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

As a student in St. Petersburg, Balanchine danced in the Maryinsky Theater production that had originally been choreographed by Marius Petipa. After leaving Russia, Balanchine and the ballerina Alexandra Danilova mounted the full-length Raymonda for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1946. At New York City Ballet, Balanchine produced three works to portions of the Raymonda score: Pas de Dix, Cortège Hongrois, and Raymonda Variations. The music in Pas de Dix and Cortège Hongrois was taken mostly from the last act of Raymonda. For Raymonda Variations, Balanchine drew on music from the first act.

Alexander Glazounov (1865-1936), a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, was director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory of Music from 1906 to 1917. It was during his tenure there that he was called to the Maryinsky to play piano for a rehearsal of Raymonda; Balanchine was one of the dancers present. Besides ballets, Glazounov composed eight symphonies, a piano concerto, a violin concerto, chamber music, and orchestral tone poems.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971), born in Russia, is acknowledged as one of the great composers of the twentieth century. His work encompassed styles as diverse as Romanticism, Neoclassicism, and Serialism. His ballets for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes included The Firebird, Petrushka, The Rite of Spring, and Apollo. His music has been used in over thirty ballets originating with New York City Ballet from 1948 through 1987, including Danses Concertantes, Orpheus, The Cage, Agon, Monumentum pro Gesualdo, Rubies, Symphony in Three Movements, Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Concerto for Two Solo Pianos, Suite from L’Histoire du Soldat, Concertino, and Jeu de Cartes.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Martha Swope

Balanchine’s choreography upset Prokofiev, who conducted the premiere. The composer had envisioned a production that was “real”; his concept of the Siren, whom he saw as demure, differed radically from Balanchine’s. Prokofiev refused to pay Balanchine royalties for his choreography. However, Prodigal Son was enthusiastically received by both audiences and critics, and was one of the first of Balanchine’s ballets to achieve an international reputation.

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a leading Soviet composer and a brilliant pianist. He left Russia in 1918 and lived in Germany and Paris for the next sixteen years, with frequent trips to America for concert appearances. In 1934 he settled in Moscow and composed prolifically until his death. Among his better known works are the ballet scores Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, and The Prodigal Son; the opera Love for Three Oranges; the children’s classic Peter and the Wolf; and the film score and cantata for Alexander Nevsky.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was born in the French Basque town of Ciboure. His family moved to Paris and encouraged him to take piano lessons. At fourteen he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Fauré, who became his principal teacher of composition. His ballet scores include Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, Jeux d’Eau, Boléro, Daphnis and Chloe, Ma Mère L’Oye, and a ballet-opera, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

Léon Minkus (1826-1917), born in Vienna, was a composer and violinist of Czech or Polish origin. In the early 1850′s he went to Russia, where he had a successful career as a concert violinist. Beginning as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1861, he became its conductor from 1862-1872. His debut as a composer in Russia was in 1869 with the ballet Don Quixote; the scenario was by Petipa. In 1872 he was appointed ballet composer to the Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg. He continued his association with Petipa with a long series of ballets that were popular in their day, but are now largely forgotten. Among those that have survived are Don Quixote, La Bayadère, and Paquita.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo uncredited.

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857), Russia’s first national composer, has been called the Mozart of his country. He is best known for his operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Ludmila. As a student at the Maryinsky Theatre, Balanchine danced in the latter; in 1969, he directed and choreographed the opera for the State Opera of Hamburg.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press). Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik

George Gershwin (1898-1937) was an American composer and pianist whose first success was the song “Swanee” in 1919. After Rhapsody in Blue was commissioned in 1924 by Paul Whiteman, Gershwin was taken seriously as a composer. In the 20′s and 30′s he wrote a series of successful musicals and film scores as well as An American in Paris (1928) and the folk opera Porgy and Bess (1934-1935). From 1924 his brother Ira Gershwin wrote nearly all of the lyrics to his vocal music. Gershwin also wrote in the classical idiom, including the Piano Concerto in F Major, and a set of preludes for solo piano.

Hershy Kay (1919-1981) established himself as a preeminent orchestrator of musicals with Leonard Bernstein’s On the Town in 1944. His works for ballet include Cakewalk, Clowns, Western Symphony, The Concert, Stars and Stripes, Who Cares?, and Union Jack; his works for musical theater include Peter Pan, Once Upon a Mattress, Candide, A Chorus Line, Evita, and Barnum. A composer in his own right, Hershy Kay also reconstructed Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s Grande Tarantelle for Piano and Orchestra, which later became the Balanchine ballet Tarantella. Mr. Kay’s work also includes a children’s record, Mother Goose.

Repertory notes provided courtesy of and adapted from New York City Ballet Online Repertory Index. Additional sources: Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, An Eakins Press Foundation Book, published by Viking (1984); and Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy Reynolds (1970; The Dial Press).  Photo credit: Photo © Paul Kolnik