Suite from Romeo & Juliet

undefined

This new CSO Resound album features the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its Music Director Riccardo Muti in performance from October, 2013 playing an extended suite drawn from Sergei Prokofievs Romeo and Juliette ballet score. Produced by David Frost, winner of the 2013 Grammy¨ Award for Producer of the Year. A musical force in Chicago and around the world, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the finest international orchestras. Its expansive catalog of more than 900 s has earned 62 Grammy¨ Awardsmore than any other orchestra in the world. Nimble string playing painted the lightness of spirit in Juliet as a Young Girl and Mr. Muti drew out an apt, naive and affectionate warmth for the well-meaning Friar Laurence.Chicago Classical Review [The CSO] played here with a brilliance and panache that brought the dramatic narrative alive.Chicago Tribune Review ------ Let's begin with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's latest disc, Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" Suite, recorded live in concert with conductor Riccardo Muti almost exactly a year ago. And you'll feel the weight of that famous Chicago brass section right from the start. [Music excerpt: "Montagues and Capulets"] Families at war: The "Montagues and Capulets" from Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo and Juliet," movements from the suites, played live in concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. The bite and the weight to the sound of this is certainly impressive. There's elegance as well: "The Young Juliet" is bew; "The Balcony Scene" breathless; the final scene at the tomb, as heartfelt as you could wish, but, if I have a criticism, it's that the performance sometimes veers towards the plush, rather than the crisp. It's luxuriously cinematic, where, just once or twice, "The Death of Tybalt," or "s," perhaps, I'd have liked a leaner sound, more athletic attack, as you find in Lorin Maazel's complete Cleveland [Orchestra] . But there's some fabulous playing here in Chicago. The sound is sumptuous, as well. That's released this coming Monday on the orchestra's own label, CSO Resound, with some interesting reminders in the notes of Prokofiev's Chicago connections. --Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio3, 09/27/2014 "Muti's way of phrasing and subtly manipulating the music's ebb and flow gives these well-known numbers a renewed dramatic impulse." --Geoffrey Norris, The Telegraph A high-water mark in recorded sound; gorgeous playing, too. --Dan Morgan, Music Web International "When you listen to this new of Romeo with music director Riccardo Muti on the podium, it feels like the CSO has incorporated Prokofiev's music into its . It's like the musicians have somehow inherited an innate understanding of this music, just by dint of that history between Prokofiev and the city of Chicago." --CBC Album of the Week, 2014