Stravinsky Festival

I recently heard a wonderful mini-festival played by the New York Philharmonic, focusing on works by Stravinsky.   I heard his Violin Concerto, Symphony in Three Movements, Agon, Movements for Piano and Orchestra, and Apollo, among others, and the works were complemented by performances of four orchestral works by Webern, along with works by Bach, Ravel, and others.   The festival was timed to coincide with the Met's performance of "The Rake's Progress", Stravinsky's only opera.

Well, actually, that's not really true, though I wish it were. The New York Philharmonic did no such thing.   Besides the Met's performance, all of the other works were performed by the orchestra of the New York City Ballet, as part of their series "Balanchine Black and White".   I sometimes think that if it weren't for George Balanchine, we wouldn't hear any Stravinsky besides the big three early ballets.   (I exaggerate, of course.)   For a composer who has been at times labelled "the greatest 20th century composer" (forget whatever that means), this is an appalling circumstance.  What I think it comes down to is that the audience (and the concert programmers who need them) love the early Dionysian Stravinsky, and have little interest in the decidedly more Apollonian Stravinsky of the 1920's and onwards.   This holds true as much for the 1920's neoclassical works such as the "Concerto for Piano"  as well as the later, more austere serial works of the 1950's and 1960's.  Nobody seems to want to hear or play them, which is very unfortunate.  All they want is more Petrushkas.

What is also wonderful about the New York City Ballet is the respect shown for the music.  A recent performance of Balanchine's delightful "Stravinsky Violin Concerto" began with an introduction to the music.   The orchestra played through a number of excerpts from the piece, with no dancers present, and the conductor discussed the work in intelligent and accessible ways.   The audience seemed to love it (and so did I).  And the subsequent performance of the ballet was certainly enriched by our heightened sensitivity to the music.  (To say nothing of the importance of the music being played live!)
It still amazes me how many reviewers of dance can write a long review of a dance performance and sometimes not even mention the music, as if the piece was danced in silence.  (Though most of the professional critics in the New York Times are quite conscientious about this.)   Of course I am obviously prejudiced towards dance in which the music plays a significant role; but I fear these days that choreographers and dancers are less knowledgable about all kinds of music, and lack a good understanding of classical music especially.