Brahms - A Ballet.

Ballets set to concert music by Johannes Brahms which have found a regular place in the repertory have been extremely rare: Massine's Choreartium (1933) and Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer (1960), of course, as well as Cranko's (just recently revived) Initials R.B.M.E. (1972) and Twyla Tharp's Brahms/Handel (1984). Now Heinz Spoerli, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Brahms's death, has opened his second season as artistic director of Zurich Ballet with Brahms -- A Ballet, which seems to be the first attempt at an all-Brahms ballet evening.

Choreographed to Brahms's Handel Variations, a selection from the first set of Liebeslieder Walzer, two of his late piano fantasies, and the first string sextet, the ballet is danced to live music (a rarity nowadays) performed by musicians from the opera house orchestra and by singers from the opera ensemble, who are partly integrated into the choreography. The project shows the company in fine fettle and is considered by many to be Spoerli's highest achievement to date.

Set designer Hans Schavernoch's stage represents a huge picture frame with mirrored doors through which one initially sees a group of dancers, posed as for a photograph. (Later, during the Liebeslieder Walzer, he evokes the grandiose concert hall of the Vienna Musikverein, where many of Brahms's works received their premieres.) One dancer (Michael Revie) starts the section set to Handel Variations with a sort of reverence, which happily blends movements from the danse d'ecole with elements from modern dance in a contemporary "fusion style," with ballroom steps added to the Liebeslieder Walzer section.

The first variations are only for the men, who gradually emerge from the background poses to dance variations with plenty of speed and zest. Brahms -- A Ballet is very much a male-dominated ballet, as was Brahms's life in spite of his eternal yearnings for female love and companionship. Later, an individual (guest artist Philipp Egli, a modern dancer) joins the other men. Dressed like a nineteenth-century bohemian, he drifts through the subsequent scenes without ever really joining the ensemble -- a born loner and an eternal wanderer. He might be Brahms, but his identification is left to the imagination. His role is very different from the rest of the company's, but perfectly integrated into the whole.

The women of the troupe gradually enter, among them menacing black-clad figures resembling the Three Fates. One cannot identify any of these figures with actual historic figures from Brahms's life, such as Clara or Robert Schumann, let alone Richard Wagner. Spoerli does not attempt to write a biography of the great composer (as some others have done with the lives of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar). Brahms -- A Ballet is, instead, rather like a journey through the landscapes of the composer's mind as he tries out his creative ideas born of joy and never-fulfilled longings. The work is beautifully structured, richly choreographed, and danced with great aplomb and dash by soloists Karine Seneca, Ilja, Louwen, Victoria Mazzarelli, Yen Han, and Ben Huys, among a large cast. One leaves the performance with the appetite whetted to explore the secrets of Brahms's music ever more deeply.