The Kirov Ballet showed the fourth program of its City Center season over the weekend. It opened with the impalpable reverie of Mikhail Fokine’s “Chopiniana,” and closed with the hard-driving pyrotechnics of Harold Lander’s “Etudes.” In “Chopiniana,” the company was in its element, but “Etudes” taxed them stringently. Two-thirds of the way through a grueling season was probably not the time to introduce this ballet. Even at the best of times, however, “Etudes” would not really suit the Kirov. The ballet’s technical syntax is ballistically pulverizing in a way that’s foreign to their training. “Etudes” was led on Friday night’s premiere by Alina Somova, Andrian Fadeyev, and Leonid Sarafanov. Ms. Somova evidently began the New York season intending to waywardly swat her legs all around her repertory, as she has largely been doing since joining the company in 2003. But she has made something of a turnaround in the space of just one week. While she still needs a lot of remedial work, her Nikiya in the “Shades” scene from “La Bayadère,” on Thursday night, was one of the first times she has looked to me like a potential ballerina.

Even a year ago, however, when I first saw Ms. Somova dance the ballerina lead in “Etudes,” it seemed like a role that might suit her. On Friday night, she was lovely in the homage to Romantic ballet, dancing with a much softer attack than anything that she’s done in New York. But she doesn’t yet have the strength for her solo bravura passages, where she was brittle and rickety.

Mr. Fadeyev and Mr. Sarafanov danced “Etudes” at the Kirov premiere in 2003, and the ballet was probably imported in part to show off Mr. Sarafanov. But here he is so schematically typecast as an eager young technocrat that he’s almost a redundancy. On Friday, Mr. Sarafanov was appropriately breezy and brash, and even in the finger-clicking mazurka solo he stayed shy of cloying cutesiness. He was even thinner than at the beginning of the season, however, and his technique noticeably weaker, although he hit the bull’s-eye on more than one occasion.

For the more mature Mr. Fadeyev, the quasi-classroom technical exhibition of “Etudes” is a complete waste of time and an enervating one, coming toward the end of a season in which only a few principal dancers, including Mr. Fadeyev, have done all the lead roles. On Friday he looked tired from his initial leap onto the stage; by the finale he was severely depleted, his smile reduced to a pasted-on grimace. On Saturday afternoon, “Etudes” was again led by Mr. Sarafanov, this time alongside Olesia Novikova and Vladimir Shklyarov. Ms. Novikova had danced the first week of the season, and then was out with an injury.

On the Saturday matinee she was either very nervous, very tired, or still recovering, since she bobbled as well as fell off pointe more than once. Fundamentally, she has the technique for the role: Her chaîné turns were more brilliant than Ms. Somova’s. But in the passages of the role where she must display noble aplomb Ms. Novikova looked like a soubrette out of water, giving us provincial rather than majestic style.

Dancing Mr. Fadeyev’s role, Mr. Shklyarov was making his debut in New York. He has beautiful legs, feet, and proportions, and a great deal of natural facility. He has a big jump and he can turn well enough. He also has a lush musculature that is the kind of build that can put on weight easily. Here he was streamlined, but his legs still looked overworked.

(Since graduating from the Vaganova Academy and joining the Kirov five years ago, Mr. Shklyarov has danced more major roles than some leading dancers do over the entire span of their careers.)

On Saturday his beats and petite allegro were not bad, but he was in overdrive during every single big jump he performed. In terms of temperament, Mr. Shklyarov is better cast in “Etudes” than in the romantic and tragic roles I’ve seen him do lately. But he grinned and oversold his juvenile enthusiasm to the point where he made Mr. Sarafanov look noble and restrained.

Technically, Mr. Sarafanov’s performance Saturday was pretty much the same as Friday night. For no more than 50% of the time could he or Mr. Shklyarov finish their pirouettes correctly.

At both performances, the Kirov ensemble made a heroic effort; all season they have performed well beyond the call of duty. But in “Etudes” they never seemed at ease.

Nevertheless, this mixed bill was the first of the Kirov run that seemed comfortable spatially on the City Center stage. “Etudes” was a little crowded but not painfully so. Also performed were “Le Spectre de la Rose” and the “Dying Swan” solo, which were engrossing on City Center’s small stage.

In Friday night’s “Spectre,” the ballet made particular sense as interpreted by Igor Kolb and Yana Selina. Ms. Selina showed her ability as a dance-actress, impersonating the teenage girl returning home from her first ball. Mr. Kolb’s Rose actually seemed to be arousing her dreams, and their momentum toward a feverish crescendo proceeded inevitably. As for the “Dying Swan,” Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva seemed to have watched each other’s performances and taken notes: Ms. Lopatkina was now more impassioned and Ms. Vishneva less histrionic than earlier in the season.