*** With the ballets Romeo and Juliet (1935-'36) and Cinderella (1940-'44), Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) took his share of the ballet tradition reborn under the Ballets Russes (Sergei Diaghilev) at the beginning of the 20th century. The Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Stéphane Denève presents with the CD Romantic Suites an idiosyncratic but solid performance on the market, although in my opinion it could have been a bit more Prokofiev!
After an unsuccessful stay in the United States (1918-1920), Prokofiev settled in Paris (1920-1936), after which Stalin - with whom he shares his date of death - lured him back to Russia. There he wrote the ballets Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella. The composer himself reworked the ballet music into 3 suites (Romeo and Juliet: opus 64Bis, 64ter and 101; Cinderella: opus 107, 108 and 109) with different contents. Stéphane Denève compiled his own Romantic Suite for each ballet on the basis of the 3 suites. These two suites have now been released by Deutsche Grammophon.
Denève lets the narrative story prevail over the musical content. And precisely for this reason, this performance quickly becomes tedious and doesn't stick enough. There is nothing wrong with the sonority: the string parts are particularly even and woodwinds and brass also sound very balanced and harmonious. The performance sounds solid, polished and smooth, but therefore also somewhat flat. Extreme attention was paid to the programmatic component of Prokofiev's ballets, much less to the composer's own distinctiveness.
The whole struggles with Prokofiev's 20th-century aesthetics (although the composer is not really recorded as an innovator) and is more reminiscent of romantic program music. Even the dissonant opening of Romeo and Juliet lacks shattering tension, charge and nervousness. The music meanders along instead of flowing. It's all just a bit too much "Peter and the Wolf", just a bit too little "Scythian Suite". Just a bit too much "French" stylization (Berlioz), just a bit too little "Russian" torment (Rimsky Korsakov).
With this CD you certainly have solidity in your hands … but not authentic Prokofiev.
- WHO: Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Stéphane Denève
- WHAT: Romantic Suites by Prokofiev, idiosyncratic compilation of Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella
- RELEASE: Deutsche Grammophon, no. 481 654-8
- [embed]https://open.spotify.com/album/5X229nPA2HmHPKtvWRWRx1[/embed]
