Sep 22, 2025
In the second part of this deep dive Hear the Dance discussion of Jerome Robbins' The Goldberg Variations, host Silas Farley is joined by former NYCB Dancers and current Repertory Directors Christine Redpath and Jean-Pierre Frohlich. Redpath, an original cast member of Goldberg, digs into Robbins' approach to the creation of this remarkably multi-faceted ballet, while Frohlich remembers the adjustments the choreographer made through the ensuing performances. Both talk about coaching Goldberg on today's company members and the ways in which the work has influenced the dancemakers of today. (42:29)
Written by Silas Farley
Edited by Emilie Silvestri
MUSIC:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor
Stravinsky
Aria with Variations in G, BWV 988 (1742), "The Goldberg
Variations" by Johann Sebastian Bach
All music performed by New York City Ballet Solo Pianist Susan
Walters
Quotations from the writings of Lincoln Kirstein are © 2019 by
the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations)
Reading List:
Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Amanda Vaill
Jerome Robbins, by Himself: Selections from His Letters, Journals,
Drawings, Photographs, and an Unfinished Memoir Edited and with
Commentary by Amanda Vaill
Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven by John Eliot Gardiner
Bach’s Musical Universe: The Composer and His Work by Christoph
Wolff
Thirty Years: Lincoln Kirstein’s The New York City Ballet by
Lincoln Kirstein
Repertory in Review: 40 Years of the New York City Ballet by Nancy
Reynolds, with an Introduction by Lincoln Kirstein