“Serenade” was followed by “Mozartiana,” which is always a marvelous juxtaposition.  “Serenade” was the first ballet Balanchine choreographed in America (premiering June 10, 1934) and “Mozartiana” was his last (premiering June 4, 1981). These ballets really speak to each other, with their moving Tchaikovsky string scores and their prominent quartet groupings.  Interestingly, they are structurally inverse. In “Serenade,” Balanchine moved the meditative third movement of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings to the end, so that the ballet finishes with a slow, spiritual cooldown—featuring a death and an ascension—instead of a boisterous allegro. In “Mozartiana” he did the reverse: he took the soft third movement Preghiera of Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4, Op. 61 and moved it to the beginning of the ballet. Thus “Mozartiana” begins with a solemn prayer and ends with a happy allegro jig. 

“Serenade” was made when Balanchine was 30, and the ballet’s leads experience love and loss in what feels like real time. “Mozartiana,” conversely, looks backward, exuding reflection throughout. Balanchine was 77 when he choreographed “Mozartiana,” and the contemplation of death is everywhere—from the black tulle mourning tutus to the black curtains draped across the cerulean cyclorama backdrop (like sitting a balletic shiva). In the opening Preghiera, the ballerina is shadowed by four young SAB students, as if remembering her youth, or passing her torch. After the male soloist’s joyous Gigue solo, he kneels and stares out at the audience for quite some time before slowly getting up and ceding the stage to the Minuet quartet.