Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet

In a February 2008 S&F post ("Remedying A Shortcoming") we had this to say about composer Sergei Prokofiev:

In terms of their works' acceptance into the standard concert canon, as the nineteenth century belongs largely to the Germans, the twentieth, it seems to me in my admittedly less than encyclopedic view of things, belongs largely to the Russians in the persons of Prokofiev (1891–1953), Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), Shostakovich (1906–75), and Stravinsky (1882–1971)....

Of these four Russian masters, the one regularly given shortest shrift today is Prokofiev, the reasons for which remain for me an insoluble mystery. [...] Of the four, it seems to me that Prokofiev is the one who produced the richest, most memorable, and most powerful music, all sans musical fustian of any sort; music that, in its lapidary perfection, reminds me of nothing so much as the music of Mozart at its lapidary best: not a note too much or too little; not a note out of place; and a clarity and precision of orchestration (including the "orchestration" of even the solo piano works) and musical narrative that's flawless, the evocative eloquence of the gestalt of all of which almost borders on the uncanny.

Of all Prokofiev's scores of our experience, we've slowly come to regard his score for the ballet Romeo and Juliet to be not only among the most gorgeous, deeply moving, and richly powerful ever written by Prokofiev, which is to say among the most gorgeous, deeply moving, and richly powerful scores of the 20th century, but among the most gorgeous, deeply moving, and richly powerful scores ever written by any composer in any century.

Do you doubt our assessment of this work? We think you'll change your mind if one undisturbed evening you, without break except between acts, listen through this sterling, Decca two-CD recording of the complete ballet by (and we're as surprised to be writing this as you might be by reading it) Lorin Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra. It is, to not put too fine a point on it, one of the most stellar recordings of the past half-century (it was recorded originally in 1973, and reissued in 1998) which recording we've had in our CD library since 2001 and have listened through some two-dozen or so times.

We urge you to add this recording to your CD library. It will be among the most rewarding CD purchases you've ever made, we promise you.

Trust us.