Riccardo Muti

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 & 2

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AllMusic Review by James Leonard

When Riccardo Muti was appointed music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, there was hope that the jut-jawed, hard-eyed Italian could revive the brilliant orchestra of Leopold Stokowski after its long, slow decline under Eugene Ormandy. That hope was cruelly thwarted when EMI began to release recordings by Muti and the Philadelphia. As these 1981 recordings of the first two suites from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet demonstrate, the sloppy and indolent Philadelphia of Ormandy's final years responded to the mighty Muti by playing with a focused but coarser tone, with a unified but cruder attack, with a tighter but rougher ensemble. Worse yet, for the magisterial Muti, the Philadelphia played the love music from the suites with a lascivious tone that would have made Juliet blush. Worst of all, in the 1984 recording of Respighi's Pines of Rome, the Philadelphia and Muti conspire together to produce a performance of unsurpassed pomposity and vulgarity. Taken together, these performances testify to the continued decline of what had once been one of the best orchestras in the country. EMI's early digital sound is hard, loud, and edgy.

Track Listing

Sample		Title/Composer	Performer	Time
Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 1 for orchestra, Op. 64 bis
	1	No. 1. Folk Dance	Riccardo Muti	4:30
	2	No. 2. Scene	Riccardo Muti	1:43
	3	No. 3. Madrigal	Riccardo Muti	3:27
	4	No. 4. Minuet	Riccardo Muti	2:50
	5	No. 5. Masks	Riccardo Muti	2:13
	6	No. 6. Romeo and Juliet	Riccardo Muti	7:29
	7	No. 7. Tybalt's Death	Riccardo Muti	4:13
Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2 for orchestra, Op. 64 ter
	8	No. 1. The Montagues and Capulets	Riccardo Muti	5:17
	9	No. 2. The Young Juliet	Riccardo Muti	3:55
	10	No. 3. Friar Laurence	Riccardo Muti	2:50
	11	No. 5. Romeo and Juliet before parting	Riccardo Muti	8:18
	12	No. 7. Romeo at Juliet's Grave	Riccardo Muti	6:13
Pini di Roma (The Pines of Rome), symphonic poem, P. 141
	13	No. 1. I pini di Villa Borghese	Riccardo Muti	2:31
	14	No. 2. I pini presso una catacomba	Riccardo Muti	6:46
	15	No. 3. I pini del Gianicolo	Riccardo Muti	7:31
	16	No. 4. I pini della Via Appia	Riccardo Muti	5:10

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Riccardo Muti

Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suites 1 & 2

AllMusic Review by James Leonard

Track Listing