Mikhail Baryshnikov once told me that when he was making Rhapsody with Frederick Ashton, the choreographer used to walk into rehearsals with the Rachmaninov score turned down to mark how far they had got. In her programme essay, Jann Parry notes that he wandered into the creation of Scènes de Ballet with a book of advanced geometry under his arm, transforming theorems into floor patterns. Presumably, he arrived to make A Month in the Country, based on Turgenev, with a dog-eared copy of the play.
Extreme musicality, a refined sense of balletic symmetry and an understanding of narrative are all qualities that define the Royal Ballet’s founding choreographer, and they were all on display in this outstanding triple bill.
