It is good to have Andre Previn’s 1973 set of Romeo and Juliet restored to circulation at such a reasonable price. The EMI recording (masterminded by Christopher Parker) still sounds pretty sumptuous and the legendary Kingsway bloom remains mercifully intact on CD. Compared with Maazel’s dazzlingly assured Clevelanders, Previn’s hard-working LSO can sound just a touch cautious and technically fallible. Ozawa’s Boston players also display great virtuosity (with no trace of the slightly self-aware ‘brilliance’ that slightly mars Maazel’s account) and his DG performance evinces an exquisite sophistication and endearing balletic poise that I like very much indeed. Yet Previn’s affectionate, wittily pointed reading has its place too: many will rightly respond to its sense of easy spontaneity, tender restraint and unaffected honesty. It is, in sum, a more relaxed, less relentlessly high-powered affair than either of those distinguished transatlantic rivals, but no less compelling for that.
Previn’s admirable Cinderella appeared originally on LP in 1983 but was never transferred to CD in its entirety, EMI opting for a single-disc ‘highlights’ compilation instead. It has, I must say, come up quite beautifully in this new transfer, the Abbey Road production (Grubb/Parker) possessing a most appealing warmth and lustre. Previn’s imaginative, highly sympathetic direction combines both warm-hearted affection as well as a most seductive theatrical flair (the whole of Act 2 is particularly memorable in this regard). Throughout, the LSO respond with considerable dash and character: just occasionally, the strings are wanting in the last ounce of finesse and absolute technical security, but the woodwind contribution is especially felicitous. Returning to the much-acclaimed (and immaculately honed) Pletnev set, I persist in finding it a comparatively chilly, charm-free zone. Ashkenazy’s handsomely engineered Cleveland account is a better bet, though still not always ideally involving. On balance, I think this competitively priced Forte reissue would now be my first choice. Unfortunately, the ‘bonus’ item – an enthusiastic, but distractingly scrappy Classical Symphony – struck me as far from ideal (this isn’t a patch on Previn’s own supremely stylish Los Angeles remake for Philips). No matter, a bargain all the same.'