★★★☆☆ Chicago plays marvelously, but Muti is unsmiling and dogmatic

Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet

Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet seems inherently virtuosic to me.  The music has a wealth of marvelous orchestration, and thankfully we have masterful readings with the Berlin Philharmonic from both Salonen and Abbado.  The Chicago Symphony is in very good shape today, and it helps that the sound on the CSO Resound label is full and rich.  Ricardo Muti favors the big, brassy sound that makes the orchestra famous. At under fifty minutes, the timing is very stingy; couldn't they have recorded more?  Either way, I'm a great fan of the music, so I listened with anticipation.

From the beginning, one hears a powerful sound from the orchestra, very much in a heroic mood.  The Montagues and Captulets is fairly stolid, relying on a heavy bass feel.  Cold accuracy dominates, driving the music with solid blocks of rhythm.  From the start, however, a problem begins to surface: Muti is rather aloof.  This isn't desperate passion; it's more of a military march. Juliet as a Young Girl shows beautiful solos, but the tempo is slow and the color rather dark.  There's no blissful abandon here, and for all the crystalline attention to detail, there's a lack of grace. Although the sound of the orchestra is attractive, Muti seems to be admiring the music from a distance.  And one does hear a gentle building of emotion; it's just that romanticism is treated with caution.  Muti favors distinct thrusts of sound, so the Minuet feels deliberate and almost forceful. He seems a stranger to lilting energy, so the Masks is earthbound instead of mercurial and vivacious.

The Romeo and Juliet number, my personal favorite, starts out devoid of suspense.  Again, the dilemma with Muti isn't so much that he's withdrawn as it is that he's impersonal.  He can bite into notes with thrilling delivery, but this isn't supposed to be heartless music.  He isn't nearly atmospheric enough.  Muti is guilty of trying to replace interesting phrasing with perfectly balanced legato pianissimos, as one hears in the end of Romeo and Juliet.  Prokofiev's orchestration is a marvel, and Abbado with the Berlin Phil is mesmerizing, enable the sound to soar with gripping lyricism.  Muti is only putting one foot ahead of the other, even if the orchestra plays effortlessly. The Death of Tybalt is a display piece of whirling power from the orchestra, and they are voiced impeccably.  I wish Muti could let off the reigns, because his pinpointed insistence strips away the hints of danger and spontaneity.  It's frustrating, because I can't help but imagine what this orchestra could produce with an inspired conductor.  

Romeo and Juliet Before Parting has a sluggish feel, and if the orchestra is glorious, so was Abbado's Berlin Phil, only the emotional thrill was searing.  Here one wants to kick Muti along, due more to a deficit of dramatic undercurrent than slow tempo.  Such luscious music certainly asks for more than unsmiling concentration.  The suite form of Romeo at Juliet's Tomb combines two movements into one, and I find myself  missing the absent material.  Either way, Muti continues to lead a perfect ensemble, but the waves of bittersweet sorrow aren't here, stunning as the orchestra is.  The music should leave the listener torn in pieces, as I'd claim Abbado does memorably, but here the impact is lost.

Especially given that others have recorded a better variety of excerpts from the ballet, this CD, despite the stellar sound and playing, is a letdown.  I can see fans of the orchestra being interested, because Chicago is truly gorgeous.  But Muti simply doesn't catch the spirit, falling short of the aforementioned Abbado and Salonen by a long mile.  Or you can always plump for the whole ballet, and Gergiev is galvanizing on the LSO Live.