Naïve and Sentimental Music (1997-98) by John Adams

Peter Martins

November 24, 2009, New York City Ballet, David H. Koch Theater

I.  Jenifer Ringer, Yvonne Borree, Jennie Somogyi, Janie Taylor, Abi Stafford, Ashley Bouder, Megan Fairchild, Philip Neal, Tyler Angle, Nilas Martins, Jared Angle, Andrew Veyette, Daniel Ulbricht, Joaquin De Luz
II. Sara Mearns, Darci Kistler, Maria Kowroski, Jonathan Stafford, Stephen Hanna, Charles Askegard
III. Sterling Hyltin, Teresa Reichlen, Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Amar Ramasar, Gonzalo Garcia

45 Min.

Choreographed to John Adams’ music of the same name, Naïve and Sentimental Music, Peter Martins uses a full cast of principal dancers.  The ballet, for the most part a series of pas de deux, has three sections.

In the first section, Naïve and Sentimental Music, the dancers establish a dreamy, mysterious mood with many circular movements and use of canon.  The second section, Mother of Man, with three couples, has the men partnering pliant women who dance with a windswept quality.  Each couple suggests different qualities in a romantic relationship. Particularly notable is Martin’s use of new principals in the company who dance with great energy and vivacity in the third section, Chain to the Rhythm.  This section, more propulsive and rapid, builds to a crescendo involving the entire cast. In the music John Adams has said that he contrasted the naïve—spontaneous, emotional, unplanned—with the sentimental—involving planning and concerned with heavier, worldly cares.

This ballet marks the ninth time Peter Martins’ has choreographed to the music of John Adams.  Adams, one of America’s most admired and frequently performed composers, has written chamber symphonies, concertos, and several operas, including Nixon in China (used by Martins in The Chairman Dances), Death of Klinghoffer, and recently, Dr. Atomic, first performed in 2005.

John Adams (b. 1947) grew up in New England and studied at Harvard with Leon Kirchner and Roger Sessions.  Influenced by the music of John Cage and Steve Reich, Mr. Adams’ music is both electronic and instrumental and is known for its combination of minimalism and romanticism.  Mr. Adams’ composition On the Transmigration of Souls, a choral work commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music.  From 2003-2007 Adams held the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall where he founded the annual “In Your Ear” festival.  Mr. Adams' memoir, Hallelujah Junction was published in 2008.  That same year San Francisco Ballet premiered Joyride, a ballet choreographed by Mark Morris, to Adams' Son of Chamber Symphony (2007).