Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet and comic opera The Love of Three Oranges spawned several concert suites that remain popular to this day. Alto is pleased to release great recordings of suites from both works recorded during the Golden Age of Stereo, conducted by two masters of orchestral color and drama, Antal Doráti and Stanisław Skrowacsewski. These classic recordings have been newly remastered by Paul Arden-Taylor.
“The playing of the Minneapolis Orchestra is on a virtuoso level. The crystal-clear acoustic and the ambience seem ideally suited to the melodic lines and pungent lyricism of this powerful score, to underline the sense of tragedy without losing the music’s romantic sweep. The fidelity of the Mercury engineering reaches a zenith in the powerful closing sequence… Doráti’s Love for Three Oranges suite still sounds remarkably vivid . Here his imagination really does take wing; such a well prepared account … Skrowaczewski includes the whole of Suite No.1 and all of No.2 except Friar Laurence. The additional pieces do merit occasional hearing, especially the lovely one from Act 1 called Romeo and Juliet”
– Gramophone
