Strange as it may seem now, Prokofiev’s most famous ballet had a particularly painful birth. The Soviet director Adrian Piotrovsky suggested a ballet adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy to the composer in 1935, but the Bolshoi pronounced the finished work “undanceable”. The Kirov agreed to stage Romeo and Juliet (complete with happy ending!) but plans were rapidly shelved after the dramaturge
 was denounced in the Pravda article Balletic Falsehood. It was his libretto for Shostakovich’s ballet The Limpid Stream that 
had offended. Piotrovsky was arrested and shot the following year – a definite nadir for the arts in Stalin’s Russia. The revised version (now with acceptable tragic ending) didn’t see the light of day until 1940, when the Bolshoi turned out to be able to dance it after all. Since then it has conquered the world, danced by the likes of Fonteyn and Nureyev. The three suites are regular concert items.

Sydney Symphony chief Vladimir Ashkenazy clearly identifies strongly with the work, having recorded it for Decca
 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ten years ago. He rightly treats it as Prokofiev’s most elevated piece – sincere, emotional and unflagging in its inspiration.

So how does the new CD stack up? On paper it looks like a fairly piecemeal affair; a mix of recordings done on three separate occasions between 2009 and 2011. Miraculously
 this is in no way 
apparent when 
listening to the
 finished product,
 thanks to Masato
 Takemura and the 
team responsible 
for production 
and editing. Indeed,
 the recording has the finest sonics that I’ve heard on the SSO house label – full and resonant but revealing plenty
 of inner detail.

Never one to hold back, Ashkenazy is on fire from start to finish and he takes the orchestra with him at even the most hair-raising tempi. The fight music showcases outstanding brass playing with devastating bite and power. There’s plenty of room for humour too, with perky dance rhythms and finely nuanced playing from woodwind. Exotic mandolins, 
a mellifluous tenor sax, that beautiful viola d’amore, plus David Drury on the organ add numerous felicitous touches.

Ashkenazy believes that there is nothing like Romeo’s death in all of Prokofiev’s music: “It is beyond all description 
– just incredible”. As the SSO soar and swell in those final passages, I for one would not say him nay.