Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet — The Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel (Decca)
The complete ballet score, with no stage and no words.
The music tells the whole story from the first scene to the last, and you can follow it with your eyes shut.
Music is how you get into a story, and you want the whole score of this one.
What it keeps and what it changes
Keeps: the whole score of the ballet, from the first act to the last.
Changes: everything except the music. No dancers, no text, no pictures: you supply them.
The whole ballet, on two discs: Decca recorded Lorin Maazel and The Cleveland Orchestra in the early 1970s.
Whose story is it?
the orchestra’s. The lovers are melodies here, and so is the feud.
How much time does it ask?
2 hours 20 minutes, on two discs. Lorin Maazel conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in a Decca recording from the early 1970s.
Decca: The Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel. Gramophone’s review called it “the whole ballet.”
Where to find it
Other ways to get it: 2-CD set — Amazon · Listen — Apple Music
More ways into Verona: The Arkangel Shakespeare recording · & Juliet — Original Broadway Cast Recording (2022)