Kammermusik No. 2

Music

Paul Hindemith

Choreography

George Balanchine

Performed with:

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Requiring great energy, speed, and precision, the striking choreography in Kammermusik No. 2 echoes the intricacies of its modernist score with jagged lines and stylized gestures.

A ballet requiring great energy, speed, and precision, Kammermusik No. 2 has a complex structure that echoes the music; one of the dancers in the original cast likened it to a computer.

The ballet is performed by two couples and an eight-man ensemble. The men, with their jagged lines and stylized gestures, dance to the music of the orchestra. The soloists, dancing to the complex passages for piano, are in counterpoint to the ensemble. The score is one of seven kammermusik pieces — the word “kammermusik” is German for “chamber music” — written by Hindemith between 1923 and 1933, when the composer turned to a neoclassical style evoking the Baroque.

20 minutes

INSIDE THE REPERTORY

Peter Walker on KAMMERMUSIK NO. 2

“Balanchine created this distinctly American style based on musicality and dynamics, elongated positions and angles—that’s at the foundation of all of the rep that we do.”

Peter Walker reflects on the singular aesthetic present in George Balanchine’s Kammermusik No. 2.

Kammermusik No. 2

An excerpt from George Balanchine's Kammermusik No. 2.

ANATOMY OF A DANCE

EMILIE GERRITY ON GEORGE BALANCHINE’S KAMMERMUSIK NO 2.

High-octane, high-contrast dancing in canon and close proximity makes this opening duet from Balanchine's second Hindemith-scored ballet both a challenge and a thrill. "Since you're only one count apart," Principal Dancer Emilie Gerrity jokes, "no one can be off, or there WILL be a collision."

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Peter Walker on KAMMERMUSIK NO. 2

Kammermusik No. 2

EMILIE GERRITY ON GEORGE BALANCHINE’S KAMMERMUSIK NO 2.

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