Product Description
Ashkenazy wears the music close to his heart, injecting it with much passionate feeling. Listen to how he phrases the Introduction's fetching melody with urgent yearning, a quality that will reappear time and again throughout the performance--particularly in the Balcony Scene (featuring some wonderfully hushed string playing) and most effectively in Juliet's Funeral, where the Royal Philharmonic brass sound wonderfully baleful. In this sense, Ashkenazy's reading is decidedly Old-World--listen to his Tchaikovsky-like treatment of the Act 1 interlude and the Arrival of the Guests--especially compared to Lorin Maazel, who leads Decca's other complete recording. Maazel's bright and brisk performance boasts stunningly virtuosic playing by the Cleveland Orchestra, which sounds more vital and incisive in passages such as Act 2's Duel, and the Death of Tybalt. However, this is no slight to the Royal Philharmonic members, who play handsomely for Ashkenazy, providing the same level of commitment and refinement they displayed in their many other recordings with this conductor. Decca's sound is warm, spacious, and detailed, with impressive dynamic range. This one's a winner.
