"Abraxas", Ballet Suite

When Egk was looking for a ballet subject in 1948, he finally selected Heinrich Heine’s work, Der Doktor Faustus. The transposition of the "Faust” subject to the ballet stage was nothing unusual: since the beginning of the 19th century this legend had been a popular ballet subject. Heine himself characterized his work in "Introductory Remarks” as a "Dance Poem”. When writing the ballet libretto, Egk largely retained the organization of the literary inspiration and also took over Heine’s idea of the revocation of concrete time. In this sense, the individual scenes of the ballet take place in different places and at different times. Scenes in "gothic style” or "in the most ancient rococo taste” alternate with a scene in hell in the style of the fin de siècle and performances at the Spanish court of Charles IV. Egk took the name "Abraxas” from the magical teachings of the Kabbala, to symbolize the countless transformation possibilities of the evil one. Musically, Egk moves about here as in his other ballets in a moderately modern, easily comprehensible compositional style. The 1948 world première in Munich led to a vehement public controversy concerning questions of "moral repugnance” – with the result that the ballet had to be taken out of the repertoire after only five performances. In the Abraxas Suite, Egk brings together the most important scenes and musical high points of the ballet in the compressed form of an orchestral piece.