Ballet after Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano / Violin and Piano
Préludes CV
John Neumeier’s ballet to Lera Auerbach’s two concert cycles: 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano in the first half and 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano in the second. The title’s “CV” carries a double meaning: Cello / Violin and curriculum vitae.
Origin
The music was not written as ballet music. John Neumeier choreographed two independent concert cycles by Lera Auerbach into a ballet whose title becomes autobiographical: Cello, Violin, and the “curriculum vitae” of memory, body, and time.
Structure
Two instrumental cycles become a theatrical two-part ballet.
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Part I · Cello
- Lera Auerbach: 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano.
- Music originally conceived as a concert work, not as ballet music.
- The cello becomes a dramatic body: inward, dark-grained, vocal, and reflective.
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Part II · Violin
- Lera Auerbach: 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano.
- Music originally conceived as a concert work, not as ballet music.
- The violin becomes a second life-line: sharper, more exposed, more airborne.
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The Meaning of CV
- C = Cello.
- V = Violin.
- CV = curriculum vitae, a life traced through preludes.
Work Information
The Two Musical Cycles
Neumeier’s choreography brings together two of Auerbach’s major instrumental prelude cycles.
- First Half · C 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano A cycle of twenty-four preludes that treats the cello as a singing, speaking, remembering body.
- Second Half · V 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano A parallel cycle for violin and piano, more exposed and volatile, forming the second half of the ballet.
- Piano as Witness The shared instrument In both cycles, the piano becomes the ground of memory: sometimes partner, sometimes shadow, sometimes fate.
- Not Ballet Music Concert origin These preludes were not composed for dance. Their transformation into ballet is an act of choreographic reading.
- Neumeier’s Frame CV as life-document The title suggests that the body itself can become a curriculum vitae — a record of wounds, memories, encounters, and transformations.
- Premiere Performers Gluzman / Aznavoorian / Yoffe / Auerbach The premiere musicians were Vadim Gluzman, violin; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Angela Yoffe, piano; and Lera Auerbach, piano.
Artistic Note
Préludes CV is built from music that already carries the feeling of a life in fragments. A prelude is short, but not small. It can be a beginning, a memory, a confession, an unfinished letter, or the trace of a passing state.
Neumeier’s title gives the work its conceptual force. “C” and “V” name the instruments of the two cycles — cello and violin — but also evoke curriculum vitae: the record of a life. The ballet therefore does not simply illustrate music; it reads the preludes as entries in a human biography.
The cello half suggests interiority, gravity, and the weight of the body. The violin half suggests exposure, volatility, flight, and the nerves of memory. Between them, the piano remains as witness — the constant companion through two different lives, two different registers, and two different ways of speaking.
Because Auerbach’s cycles were not written for ballet, the choreography becomes an act of interpretation: Neumeier discovers theatre inside the concert form, revealing how instrumental music can contain biography, gesture, and dramatic time without needing words.
World Premiere
2003
Hamburg Premiere
- Hamburg
- Hamburg State Opera
- Hamburg Ballet
- Music — Lera Auerbach
- Choreography — John Neumeier
- Part I — 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano
- Part II — 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano
- Vadim Gluzman — violin
- Ani Aznavoorian — cello
- Angela Yoffe — piano
- Lera Auerbach — piano
- Created for Hamburg Ballet
Préludes
CV
Resources
Préludes CV. Ballet by John Neumeier to Lera Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano and 24 Preludes for Violin and Piano. The musical cycles were originally written as concert works; Neumeier choreographed them into a ballet for Hamburg Ballet.