Classical Music | Music for Viola

Recorded on 04/19/2005, uploaded on 01/24/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Five pieces from Romeo and Juliet for viola and piano       Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev wrote Romeo and Juliet in 1934 at the request of the director of the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. He had already come from the success of his opera The Love for Three Oranges, and was very interested in doing a Russian ballet production of Shakespeare's most famous play. Prokofiev encountered many difficulties in putting together this opera, but thankfully persevered and produced some of the greatest music of the twentieth century.

Vadim Borisovsky, famed Russian violist and teacher, created this fine transcription by culling five movements from the original structure of the ballet. Prokofiev's masterful writing is perfectly displayed in this set, ranging from his muscular and sarcastic rhythms and harmonies in the Dance of the Knights to his exquisitely beautiful and tender melodic writing in Balcony Scene.Eric Nowlin

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.