Romeo and Juliet has not fared well of late: Riccardo Muti's version with the Philadelphia Orchestra is brilliantly vivid but he treats Prokofiev's score as an orchestral showpiece rather than a Shakespearean drama, and offers surprisingly little atmosphere. Mstislav Rostropovich and the Washington orchestra offer the same numbers (the two complete suites from which Muti omits two dances, including the beguiling ''Dance of the maidens with lillies'') but is too idiosyncratic, making very heavy weather of certain moments and the sound balance is artificial. Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony compile a different anthology from the complete ballet than that represented by the two suites or in the excerpts offered from the complete recordings of Maazel (Decca SXL6620, 9/73) or Previn (HMV SLS864, 12/73) and it seems odd to give us only three quarters of an hour of the ballet and then fill the remaining quarter with the Classical Symphony!
Solti gives a wholly unmannered account of all this music and secures brilliant orchestral playing. As far as the sound is concerned, we are very much in the pit: there is spectacular presence and impact, wide dynamic range and maximum detail. Alas, there is little distance to lend enchantment and there will be some collectors who will find it all too overlit and fierce. The upper strings do not always sound pleasing and there is none of the warmth or sense of space that one encounters in the Philharmonia LP version with Efrem Kurtz or the LSO account on LP under Abbado. I wondered whether hearing this magical score in the aural equivalent of strip lighting served to rob the music of its atmosphere and its sense of theatre: Solti's performance is dynamic and not without poetic feeling and even charm (in the slow movement of the Classical Symphony) and it is certainly to be preferred to the Rostropovich and Muti. It will be much in demand in demonstration showrooms and is undoubtedly spectacular but those wanting more of the mystery and atmosphere of the score should turn to the rival anthologies of Maazel or Previn on LP. Just a reminder, too, of the recently issued recording from the Bolshoi on two HMV LPs (SLS1650933, 8/83) which offers three short but interesting pieces from the ballet that have not been recorded before and though it lacks virtuosity and the recording is not of the best, it does have a sense of the theatre.'