BaL 18.01.25 - Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy overture)

[Pulcinella]

1500
Building a Library
Marina Frolova-Walker chooses her favourite version of Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture.

Presto listing (more than 300 entries) here:

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/works/46527--tchaikovsky-romeo-juliet-fantasy-overture/browse

Recommended recording:
Budapest Festival Orchestra
Ivan Fischer (conductor)
Channel Classics CCSSA21704

[Barbirollians]

LSO/Previn for me .

[Braunschlag]

I’m going to go quite a way back - Abbado/Boston Symphony Orchestra. 1970 something (used to be coupled with Scriabin). Although few in number Abbado did some very interesting recordings with the BSO (Daphnis Suite 2, Debussy Nocturnes). Much preferred his earlier years before he got Mahlered…..

[smittims]

I agree Abbado's Boston recording is superb (2530 137 originally coupled withteh Poem of Ecstasy), also Haitink I think gets to the heart of the work.

This was a work I used to hear so often I deliberately avoided it for years, so it's been a pleasure to hear it afresh .

[Petrushka]

Perhaps something of a dark horse, but a favourite of mine is the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington and Antal Dorati.

Other than that LSO/Previn is my top pick.

[richardfinegold]

Did Munch and Boston record this? One of my first LPs coupled R&J with the Serenade For Strings and I think it was Munch and Boston.
I played that LP, whoever it was, a lot back then but I haven’t actively sought out R&J since. I usually encounter it as a filler and I probably own half a dozen or so. Again the memory is failing; did Muti and the Philharmonia record it? The most recent that I actually remember listening to was Solti/CSO. Or it could be Monteux and the VPO, as a filler for the Fifth Symphony, from a live concert that also featured John Ogdon in PC1

[LMcD]

Did Munch and Boston record this? One of my first LPs coupled R&J with the Serenade For Strings and I think it was Munch and Boston.
I played that LP, whoever it was, a lot back then but I haven’t actively sought out R&J since. I usually encounter it as a filler and I probably own half a dozen or so. Again the memory is failing; did Muti and the Philharmonia record it? The most recent that I actually remember listening to was Solti/CSO. Or it could be Monteux and the VPO, as a filler for the Fifth Symphony, from a live concert that also featured John Ogdon in PC1

I imagine that for some people the coupling(s) might be a factor.

[Hitch]

I'm partial to the Semyon Bychkov and Czech Philharmonic effort. It'll be interesting to see what crops up in the BaL broadcast.

[Pulcinella]

It doesn't feature on a BBC MM CD, or, as far as I recall, on any compilation CD I have, so the only version I've found on the shelves is with Andrew Litton and the Bournemouth SO, in his Virgin box set of Tchaikovsky symphonies. Must give it a spin. I can imagine that Abbado is good, along with others mentioned.

[gradus]

Karajan/VPO does it for me.

[Petrushka]

Karajan/VPO does it for me.

That's another top notch performance.

The fact of the matter is there must be many recordings that would easily satisfy anyone as a BaL first choice.

[smittims]

Yes,the Vienna/Karajan (one of his famous John Culshaw Decca recordings) has always been highly-praised.

Charles Munch and the Boston S.O. recorded it twice, in 1956 and 1961, the original couplings being Francesca da Rimini and Till Eulenspiegel respectively.

I was interested to discover that Sir Adrian Boult also made two versions, a Nixa inthe 1950s which was reissued in the UK on a 'Marble Arch' LP. amd a 1966 stereo made for Anthony Griffith's World Record Club after the EMI takeover. One might not associate 'old sobersides' withtis work, but his second had very good reviews. He was more a Tchakovskian than many may think, and recorded also some of the composer's lesser-known music.

[Keraulophone]

In 1970/71 I managed to find a few pennies in my shallow schoolboy pockets to buy an LP of R&J. It gave me much pleasure then as it does a nostalic glow now. (Sponsorship by a tobacco company did nothing to stop smoking behind the bike sheds.)

[gurnemanz]

In 1970/71 I managed to find a few pennies in my shallow schoolboy pockets to buy an LP of R&J. It gave me much pleasure then as it does a nostalic glow now. (Sponsorship by a tobacco company did nothing to stop smoking behind the bike sheds.)

Around the same time I was a student and picked up, for 99p I think, an LP of George Szell's Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony on Decca's Word of Great Classics label which had been recorded in 1962 and suppressed by Szell for some mysterious reason. It did not appear until 1972 (after Szell's death in 1970) and was generally acknowledged to be a great recording. A CD did not appear until 1999 on the short-lived Penguin Classics label. I duly snapped it up and as a filler it had Karajan's Romeo and Juliet Overture from 1960 with VPO. I've just played that again with great enjoyment.

I have also just listened to another Vienna recording which I only recently acquired - not VPO but a live recording of LSO with Pierre Monteux on tour at the Vienna Festival in 1963. The conductor was 88 and died the following year and it has tremendous vitality and and the exciting immediacy of a great maestro in a live show.

[richardfinegold]

I have also just listened to another Vienna recording which I only recently acquired - not VPO but a live recording of LSO with Pierre Monteux on tour at the Vienna Festival in 1963. The conductor was 88 and died the following year and it has tremendous vitality and and the exciting immediacy of a great maestro in a live show.

That Monteux may be the same that I referenced, from a live concert featuring the 5th Symphony and the PC with Ogdon. As I wrote the post I couldn’t remember if the orchestra was the LSO or the VPO but I yes somehow Vienna was associated with it. I was going to rummage through my DVD Audio collection yesterday but then got caught up running errands for our neighbor who has Covid.

Ed-I rummaged into the pile and yes it is the LSO. eBay also has a CD (double ?) of the same concert