Valery Gergiev’s previous recording of this work suffered from dull sonics and less than stellar playing from the Kirov orchestra. These two defects have been remedied in this remake, which has plenty of power and excitement thanks to the LSO brass, and very good live SACD sonics (perhaps a touch dry, but no big deal). I used to think that this music was best experienced complete, but now I’m not so sure. This is a very long ballet (about two hours and 20 minutes) and there’s a lot of repetition. In the last two acts you begin to notice how much the basic themes depend on simple rising and falling scales.
Still, Gergiev knows how to keep the music moving. Juliet’s tunes are appropriately skittish, then wistful. The party music really swings, the sword fights are fierce, and the street scenes have plenty of color. The Balcony Scene has the right romantic atmosphere (notwithstanding its silly waltz variation that Prokofiev wisely cut for the suite), and the tragic ending has plenty of passionate feeling. Only the first Dance with Mandolins sounds excessively sluggish and clunky, but then this surely was intentional (God knows why). In short, this is a very fine performance, perhaps not quite as energetic or as well played as Ozawa/Boston, but much better recorded. You won’t be disappointed.
