Customer Reviews

Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet

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3 star:		(1)
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I have several full recordings of this wonderful ballet. Ashkenazy, Maazel and Previn are all very good. Gergiev is OK.

But this is certainly my favourite recording. The sound quality and orchestral performance are just superb. The conducting is excellent, too. The fun elements are brought out with so much zest and orchestral detail.

The brass interlude in Act I between the fight and the Ball is so wonderfully funny in this recording: the brass dissonance is highlighted so well. No other recording approaches it for things like this.

So in summary, a superb recording of an absolutely wonderful piece.

Despite a string of disappointments in his efforts to realize stage-works, Prokofiev had an acute and life-long affinity for the stage which shows in the excellence of his ballets and operas. His catalogue here is so deep, that it is easy enough to point to imperfections here and there -- but "Romeo & Juliet" is one of his few perfect stage works. His sense of musical characterization here is second to none in the twentieth century; his sense of the right music for the scene is here unrivalled, even by Stravinsky (for Igor Fyodorovich generally worked best with abstract, generalized choreographic scenarios). "Romeo & Juliet" is a full evening ballet in the grand Russian tradition (as opposed to the 'miniaturized' ballet format popularized by Dyagilev's Russian Seasons in Paris); and part of Prokofiev's impressive achievement is the focus and continuity in this enormous score -- there is simply not a dull moment. The music works well as "independent listening" (which is the first manner in which I heard it), but it is supremely suited to the stage action for which it was designed (we saw a fine performance of the ballet at the Maly Theatre in St Petersburg). The BSO is at its best here, the strings both competent and warm, the brass full, round and glorious, the woodwinds in impeccable intonation. If you thought Prokofiev was basically "Peter & the Wolf," the "Classical Symphony" and the March from "The Love for Three Oranges," this is a score to open your ears to the wider riches of Prokofiev's oeuvre.

...though, I admit, I have only heard three others, the Gergiev, Dutoit and Tilson Thomas, though these are usually toured as the best. Ozawa has a particular affinity for offbeat music, i.e. Berlioz, Schoenberg and Prokofiev, as this disc amply proves. The sweep, grandeur, feeling and humor of the performance are irresistable.

In listening to the entire score again, however, I noticed that three or four little themes were rather "beaten to death" by Prokofiev; but overall, this is his ballet masterpiece.

Highly recommended.

This is a beautiful recording, full of drama and life. Ozawa gives an excellent and intelligent reading - the funny parts are funny, the hope, irony, and melancholy of the balcony scene are perfect, and the finale captures a rare balance between heartbreak and affirmation. The Boston Symphony plays with soul, precision, and its characteristic rich tone.

'Romeo & Juliet' by Sergei Prokofiev simply does not sound like a score to any story by Shakespeare. I would love to see a live performance of this work, and I suspect it is the only way one can fully appreciate the drama in the music, because the more I listen, the more I hear either 'Alexander Nevsky' or 'The Rites of Spring' by Stravinsky. The music seems at the same time too heavy and too whimsical to be all about two teenaged lovers. A perfect contrast is Bernstein's music for 'West Side Story'. Now that's about two teenagers!

But all that aside, this is great music, and Ozawa and his Boston lads seem to give it all they've got. A great listen, and a strong argument to search out a performance in the flesh.

No me cabe la menor duda que ésta es la versión definitiva de Romeo de Procofiev. Ozawa hace una lectura vigorosa de la partitura, destacando cada detalle. La magistral concepción de Ozawa, sumado a su manejo de balances y cambios de ritmo perfectos, en los cuales la Boston SO responden con una perfección IMPRESIONANTE y una calidad de sonido de lo mejor, hacen de esta grabación algo épico. Este es un CD que muestra claramente de que se trata el arte de la dirección de orquesta.

Fuertemente recomendado. Procofiev at his VERY BEST.

Francisco J. Muñoz.

I can see why people love this Romeo and Juliet--the BSO plays with real elegance, a rare attribute in this score (or generally in Prokofiev recordings). If you want the two lovers to walk on a cloud, this is the performance for you. Ozawa's fondness for wisp, gossamer textures is refreshing, but he misses a great deal of the passionate, aggression, and sarcasm in Prokofiev's writing, which matches a story full of those qualities. You sense immediately that this is a ballet but not that it's a tragedy.

I think Romeo and Juliet is Prokofiev's masterpiece, and I eagerly attended the live performances associated with this recording. After half an hour of Ozawa tip-toeing around the score and smoothing out every rought edge and sharp corner, I became drowsy and left at intermission. In the end elegance isn't enough, and the lack of passion here proves fatal. There are wonderful recordings of excerpts from the ballet, including Mitropoulos on Sony, Salonen, also on Sony, Abbado on DG, etc. For a complete version, Maazel with the Cleveland Orch. on Decca has the benefit of great sound and impact, but the conducting tends to be coarse and uninvolving. Gergiev is totally involved, but Philips didn't give the Kirov Orch. very clear or vivid sound (in concert they are incomparable in this work). Still, I'd put Gergiev first by quite a distance over Ozawa.