Prokofiev - The Montagues and Capulets
The fiery Montagues and Capulets from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet is heart-pumping stuff.
Prokofiev originally wrote Romeo and Juliet for St. Petersburg's Kirov ballet in 1935, and had initially wanted to change the ending of William Shakespeare's timeless love story to a happy one. In the end, he considered, almost certainly correctly that this would have been a step too far.
The huge demands Romeo and Juliet placed on the dancers meant it wasn't perfomed for a few years, receiving its premiere in Brno in 1938. Prokofiev wrote new sections for a 1940 production and it was then that the music really took off, eventually forming the basis of three popular suites of which The Montagues and Capulets (sometimes knows as The Dance of the Knights) was the centrepiece.
Its popularity endures today. The Montagues and Capulets was chosen as the dramatic opener to Classic FM Live concert at London's Royal Albert Hall in October, and you can listen here to the rousing performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra .
Listen to Prokofiev's The Montagues and Capulets at Classic FM Live
The work is probably best known as the theme tune to the BBC television programme The Apprentice and if you every find yourself at Sunderland Athletic Football Club you'll hear it being played as the team run onto the pitch at home games.
If you enjoyed listening to The Montagues and Capulets, you can also listen again to these pieces from Classic FM Live:
Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (soloist: Benjamin Grosvenor)
Puccini - Recondita Armonia from Tosca (soloist: Noah Stewart)
Elgar - Nimrod from Enigma Variations
Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture
Bruch - Finale from Violin Concerto No. 1
Mascagni - Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana
Bach - Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor
Holst - Jupiter, from The Planet
Pachelbel- Canon in D
