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| CBS Masterworks (Full price) 42662; (Cassette) 40-42662; (CD) CD42662 (56 minutes: DDD). |
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| Act 1—No. 7, The Prince gives his orders; No. 8, Interlude; No. 9, Preparing for the Ball; No. 10, Juliet as a young girl; No. 11, Arrival of the guests; No. 12, Masques; No. 13, Dance of the Knights; No. 19, Balcony Scene; No. 20, Romeo's Variation; No. 21, Love Dance. Act 2—No. 22, Folk Dance; No. 25, Dance with the mandolins; No. 33, Tybalt and Mercutio fight; No. 35, Romeo decides to avenge Mercutio's death; No. 36, Finale. Act 3—No. 39, The last farewell; No. 48, Morning Serenade. Epilogue—No. 51, Juliet's Funeral; No. 52, Death of Juliet. |
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Anyone looking for a single-disc selection from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet—his most masterly score need look no further than this magnificent CBS record. Any disc featuring the Berlin Philharmonic on top form has a head start and CBS have increased the odds by providing superb recorded sound, made in the Berlin Philharmonie, but with far more ambience than DG usually achieve with Karajan in the same venue. The resonance is just right and the sound is full and rich, well detailed with a fine bloom, yet with plenty of punch and projection. The very opening demonstrates the breadth of the dynamic range and the emotional power of Salonen's reading. He shows himself an ideal ballet conductor and his approach with its ebb and flow of rubato, naturally following the melodic line and breathing with the phrases, is wonderfully balletic, reminding me of the great Anatole Fistoulari. The lyrical feeling of the music is always paramount, yet there is drama and spectacle too, and the most striking characterization of the picaresque numbers.
The chosen items parallel the narrative admirably, but are laid out so that each follows on naturally to make continuous listening very pleasurable. The orchestral playing is wonderfully felicitous in its detail: "Juliet as a young girl" is captivatingly light and graceful, while the more robust "Masques" has superbly crisp rhythmic pointing. Salonen's shaping of the melodic contour is most moving in the number described rather clumsily as "Love Dance" (the pas de deux) and here the string playing is wonderfully free and expressive, the rubato most subtle, the ardour never overdone, while later "The last farewell" is touching in the same way. The two dances which follow make a delightful contrast. "Folk Dance" is a joy with gossamer violins against jocular woodwind and the "Dance with the mandolins" is piquantly coloured to great effect, later the "Morning Serenade" offers another mandolin interlude before the powerful closing dramatic denouement.
This is a most distinguished disc and one wishes CBS had commissioned Esa-Pekka Salonen to do a complete version of the ballet. However the documentation is a great disappointment, offering only a brief essay on the background of the work's composition. There is no synopsis, merely the list of titles (with 19 cues) on the liner note at the back of the CD case.
IM