Word: prokofievs
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...major work, the orchestra performed excerpts from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, combining these with readings from the play. Mr. Manusevitch had obviously rehearsed this wonderful music thoroughly; except for some wretched brass playing in an andante section, all of the movements were well done. The speakers were also good, particularly Daniel Seltzer, who read an opening chorus, Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and some of Friar Laurence's best lines. Lynn Milgrim Phillips made a charming Juliet, and Paul Schmidt an adequate Romeo, though his relentless theatricality became a bit tiresome...
Unfortunately, the idea of having speakers and musicians collaborate on Romeo and Juliet might have been better thought out. The balcony scene, for one thing, is much too long to be sandwiched between two sections of Prokofiev's score. And while it seems terribly clever to have appropriate readings with the music, I really don't think the performance demonstrated the relevance of one to the other; the only "scene" which came off effectively was the closing one in the tomb--in which the music does convey beautifully the mood of Shakespeare's words...
...openers, the company staged its pièce de résistance, a robust rendering of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, followed by a lavish, streamlined Swan Lake featuring nothing less than the reigning tandem of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, who had volunteered their services and spent one week of intensive rehearsals mastering the myriad refinements of Cranko's interpretation. But the creation that stirred the most frenetic response from the crowd was the première of a handsomely preened and plumed production of Stravinsky's Fire Bird, grounded in the Fokine tradition but soaring...
...PROKOFIEV: SYMPHONY NO. 5 (Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Boston Symphony; RCA Victor). Only a conductor with the sophistication and logic of Leinsdorf can keep rein on the tugging emotional and intellectual strands of Prokofiev's greatest symphony. The first and third movements are deeply felt, but never betrayed by theatrical effects; the second and fourth are lively and lyrical in turn, but edged with sudden ominous outcroppings...
...attempt a real symphony or concerto at every concert? Why not attempt a real piece of twentieth century music at every concert: not Frank Martin, Roberto Gerhard, Alberto Ginastera, or the diaper works of Piston, Prokofiev, and Bartok; but Schoenberg, recent Stravinsky, our own Kirchner. Of course these works are too hard for the orchestra; but the attempts would be worth much more than regurgitations--and bad regurgitations--of Mendelssohn and Faure...