Notes on Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2
United in death
1936 – the year in which Sergei Prokofiev composed two of his three Romeo and Juliet Suites. Following his return from exile to the Soviet Union in the middle of the 1930‘s, Prokofiev concentrated mainly on his full-length ballet Romeo and Juliet, on which he had worked with great enthusiasm during the summer and autumn of 1935 after receiving a commission from the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. (His enthusiasm for ballet music had clearly revealed itself during his time in Paris, during which he composed a number of ballets for Sergei Diaghilev‘s famous Ballets Russes.) The Ensemble was certainly disappointed after first hearing it played through and also during rehearsals; they considered Prokofiev‘s complicated rhythmic structures to be "undanceable" and the unexpected happy ending, in which Julia wakes up in time to prevent Romeo from committing suicide, to be inappropriate. The Bolshoi Theatre finally dropped the production. But Prokofiev was so convinced of the quality of his work – in which his melodic talent, refined intellect and experience in writing film-music are interwoven in an artistic manner – that he wrote two Concert Suites as a kind of propaganda for his own compositions.
And thus the seven-part Suite No. 2, Op. 64b on this recording was already performed in 1937, a year before the première of the ballet took place in Brünn. The opening movement "Montagues and Capulets" is probably the best-known part of the ballet and presents the proud and aggressive dance of the knights at the Capulet ball. In a lyrical interlude, Romeo first sees Juliet. In "Juliet, the young girl", two flutes play Juliet‘s theme and reveal her passionate nature. Towards the end of the movement, the harp and saxophone indicate that Juliet‘s childlike naturalness does not stand a chance in the adult world. "Friar Laurence" awaits the lovers in the chapel to the accompaniment of a solemn theme played by the tuba and bassoon, which then gives way to a warm melody in the cello. The following "Dance" is a kind of interlude for five couples in the market place. "Romeo at Juliet‘s before the parting" announces the dramatic finale and depicts the melancholy theme of the farewell in soaring sounds. The "Dance of the Antilles girls" accompanies the bridesmaids in their dance around the sleeping Juliet. Extended and highly expressive variations on the death theme accompany "Romeo at Juliet‘s grave", before the Suite closes in a restrained manner in a simple C-major key. The lovers are united in death.