Mozartiana’s prayerful opening will touch your spirit and the upbeat theme and variations that follows builds to pure exhilaration.

Mozartiana is set to the Suite No. 4, Tschaikovsky’s arrangement and orchestration of several short works by Mozart. Balanchine first choreographed to this music at the start of his career in 1933, and nearly 50 years later, he returned to the score to create a new ballet, one of his last works. After seeing the work, author Solomon Volkov wrote this letter to Balanchine:

Dear Georgi Melitonovich, I want to thank you for Mozartiana. You entirely changed my attitude towards [Tschaikovsky’s] ‘Mozartiana.’ I respected that suite, but I did not love it. I see now that I did not understand it. Your interpretation revealed the inner sadness and delicate harmony of this music. How subtly sketched in Gigue the flourishing bow of the Russian composer to the Austrian genius! The dance does not follow the music, mirroring its meter and rhythm. It draws the music into a complex counterpoint; Mozartiana blossoms. The music thus is a ballerina that the partner does not just support, but unexpectedly lifts into the air. And Mozartiana flies, amazed.

Set to the lilting second movement of Tschaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Andantino is infused with a sense of sweetness and unforced drama.

Tschaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 debuted to great success at its premiere in Boston in 1875 with the pianist Hans van Bülow. Van Cliburn won the First International Tschaikovsky Competition (and the hearts of Russians) when he played the concerto in Moscow in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. Jerome Robbins choreographed Andantino to the concerto’s second movement, Andantino semplice – Prestissimo. In his exploration of partnering for two dancers — choreographed for Darci Kistler and Ib Andersen — Robbins chose to infuse the pas de deux with a natural sense of unforced romantic drama.

With its symphonic Tschaikovsky score, Diamonds venerates the regality of Balanchine's native Russia for an elegant and romantic experience.

Balanchine choreographed Diamonds, the third section of his three-part masterpiece Jewels, to Peter Ilyitch Tschaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29. Tschaikovsky composed this work in 1875, just before starting to write Swan Lake. It is the only one of his six symphonies in a major key, and it is the only one to have five movements, with two scherzos setting off the central Andante elegiaco. Balanchine, however, decided to omit the symphony's first movement, deeming it unsuitable for dancing.