For a company to unveil a decent new ballet is a strange and marvelous occurrence. To unveil two in one season? Quality choreography that celebrates classicism, that highlights musicality — that even pushes the form into new realms — isn’t the norm. But at New York City Ballet this season, two premieres were worthy of many more viewings — and in the case of Alexei Ratmansky’s harrowing “Solitude,” set to Mahler, endless ones. Inspired by a 2022 photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling before the body of his dead son, the ballet filled the stage with bodies expressing the tangible ache of grief and love.

---

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, ”, Mahler, Ratmansky, —, “, Tiler Peck, Francis Poulenc, Peck, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine’s, Mary Thomas MacKinnon’s Organizations: New York City Ballet, City Ballet, della Locations: New, Ukrainian, della Regina