The program Wednesday evening at the New York City Ballet let the audience eavesdrop on a drawing room conversation between Balanchine at his most classically polite in his early “Allegro Brillante,” and Boris Eifman at his most temperamental in “Musagete,” his homage to the maestro.

“Allegro Brillante,” set to a single movement of Tchaikovsky’s unfinished Piano Concerto No. 3, is a joyous work for an ensemble of eight corps dancers and two principals, each dressed in the sherbet colors of Karinska’s costumes, flowing dresses of robin’s-egg blue for the women and violet leotards for the men.

Originally mounted on Maria Tallchief in 1956, the role has been performed throughout its history by some of the finest allegro dancers, including Melissa Hayden and Patricia Wilde. In this performance, Jenifer Ringer tackled the difficult combinations of classical steps. She replaced at the last minute Kyra Nichols. Although she was hesitant at times in her solo, and approached her repeated pirouettes cautiously, she nonetheless made good on the bright flourishes that make this piece so delightful. In the steady hands of premier danseur Nilas Martins, she flashed her arms in fifth position at the height of a lift.

The sharpened unity among the ensemble (they are honestly excellent this season) made it clear “Allegro Brillante” is much more than a divertissement. Just as Tchaikovsky hides in his concerto dissonant chords beneath the romantic sonorities, Balanchine invents arch patterns for the ensemble. He goes so far as to incorporate into the men’s ensemble angular poses for the arms that he had used in “Agon” only two years before.

Although the corps plays an accentual role, their staging is a constant marvel. They form parallel lines, briskly moving forward and back to create a rippling aisle for Ms. Ringer and Mr. Martins. Their variation behind the principals’ duet converges in a series of lifts that are traded side to side. In a particularly witty combination, the women echappe twice and then faint into the men’s arms.

“Allegro Brillante” is more than a formal exercise. Academic movements are interspersed with fresh combinations, making it a particularly readable study on Balanchine’s unique style of classical dancing. When each corps dancer takes turns walking beneath Ms. Ringer’s raised arm, we see a ring pattern develop – the trademark behavior of Balanchine’s muses from “Apollo.”

Boris Eifman’s “Musagete,” commissioned last year as a tribute to Balanchine during the centennial celebration of his birth, replaces Balanchine’s own muses from “Apollo” with three ballerinas who each correspond to specific periods in his life. Stravinsky’s score, “Apollon Musagete,” is changed to somber and baroque selections of Bach, which casts a decidedly un-Balanchine pallor over the suite of 10 sections.

Each episode alternates between the corps and an individual ballerina, classical and modern dance, and the private and public sides of Mr. Eifman’s Balanchine.

The work begins with Robert Tewsley sitting in a black chair under a worshipful beam of light. Mr. Tewsley, a guest artist, returns to the role of Balanchine with dedicated zeal, even when he is at his most dour. To the harpsichord of Bach’s Concerto No. 2, he slides across the stage while seated, before lowering himself on all fours to grip the chair despairingly.

His bouts of internal struggle are interrupted by the appearance of the corps, which joyfully calls him back into life as a creative artist, and by each of the three female ballerinas in turn, who send him back into a funk.

Wendy Whelan enters first, elastic and demure in a black leotard and sequined cap by Holly Hines. She captivates him with a distinct set of balances. Their duet together is witty and a bit sinister. She slinks down to crouch catlike on point; once kneeling there, she stretches an extended leg into the air and is lifted up by Mr. Tewsley. Many of Ms. Whelan’s phrases suggest an animal masquerade – which is also a theme in the final pas de quatre of “Apollo,” the three muses imitating horses in a chariot. Here Ms. Whelan reduces her partner to submission and sits on his back, taking hold of the reins.

Alexandra Ansanelli, in light purple, dances with doll-like charm and innocence in her duet with Mr. Tewsley. She remains firm with each lift, striking hourglass poses in midair. In carefully articulated movements she slips and falls, losing control of her limbs. A death figure in black enters in a very long black cape, pulling her into the wings.

The sequence, of course, is a heavy-handed and melodramatic reference to Tanaquil Le Clercq, Balanchine’s fourth wife, who contracted paralytic polio at the height of her career. Although Mr. Eifman qualifies in his program note that “it is not a biographical ballet,” the identification of the female leads with real people gives the somber work a gossipy tone.

Mr. Eifman thinks of himself as a fellow landsman, a next-generation expatriate. That he sees himself in Balanchine is apparent in the tortured modernist phrasing of Mr. Tewsley’s several solos: but this is Eifman, not Balanchine. The less one entertains the parallels with Balanchine, the more one can appreciate “Musagete” for what it is. His choreography in the classical passages may be a dull imitation of “Allegro Brillante,” but Mr. Eifman is generous and inventive in his modernist meditations on our darker emotions.

In Mr. Tewsley’s duet with Maria Kowroski, she stands motionless with her arms in first position. As soon as he approaches, she evades him, backing up to a rehearsal barre.

Mr. Eifman uses the prop to stunning ends: Mr. Tewsley spins it in a vicarious promenade; he tilts it menacingly. The barre separates the couple, but they continue to interact with immense beauty and pathos on either side. Once she leaves him for good, he upsets the contraption, creating a sharp diagonal line at the center of the stage. Along that line he interacts with thoughtful gestures, contracting in powerful poses of anguish. Of the muses in “Musagete,” this is Mr. Eifman’s most loyal.

“Allegro Brillante” will be performed again May 13 at 8 p.m. and May 14 at 2 p.m. “Musagete” will be performed again May 14 at 8 p.m., May 15 at 3 p.m., and May 20 at 8 p.m. (Lincoln Center, 212-870-5570).