Day 16: Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

Day 16: Prokofiev Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet

Well, I can tell you this journey is certainly one of musical education for me, or at least putting straight a few misunderstandings I’ve been harbouring all these years! Forgive me, I’m talking about Romeo and Juliet. Tchaikovsky wrote an overture to Romeo and Juliet – yes? Now, because he wrote music for lots of ballets (here I’m thinking the Nutcracker and Swan Lake) in my naivety, never having bothered to check, I assumed that this was an overture to a ballet, but no, it’s actually a standalone fantasy piece!

So, I’m glad I cleared that up, because, actually, I may well have known that someone had composed some music to accompany a ballet called Romeo and Juliet, especially as I know the music quite well (and I can assure you it was well before the Apprentice ever came to our television screens!) but it has taken me until today to realise that this was actually Prokofiev!

So, on my little CD of ballet music, I have quite a nice little collection of snippets from famous ballets. I had a spare ten minutes today so I listened to some of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet; Montagues and Capulets, Death of Tybalt and Dance of the Maids with Lilies, to be exact.

The first of these starts off with such dissonant chords, presumably to draw your attention to the war waging between the two families. Then, comes the stately theme with which we are all so familiar! You can almost see the two families parading around and trying to outdo each other! The next excerpt is light and, well, flowery, whilst the final one is rather more morose. If you close your eyes whilst listening, you can just imagine how the ballet would look!

Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Efrem Kurtz* Altogether a good listen!

Sorry to link to an obituary, but it was rather a good summation of his life and career.

PS Yes, I know Berlioz is also associated with Romeo and Juliet, through his choral symphony of the same name!