Stanislaw Skrowaczewski is one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. To mark the 100th anniversary of this exceptional musician, MDG, in cooperation with DENON, is releasing a recording of the "Romeo and Juliet" ballet suites, which Skrowaczewski recorded with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. Born in Lwow, Poland, (now Lviv, Ukraine), Skrowaczewski's musical talent was recognised and encouraged early. At the age of just 13, he performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. Due to an injury he received during WW2, he had to give up his career as a pianist and instead had great success as a composer and conductor. Internationally sought-after, Skrowaczewski conducted in Europe, East Asia and the USA; he had long-lasting influence on the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. "Romeo and Juliet" is one of Prokofiev's most popular works. Yet the ballet was initially regarded by the Bolshoi Theatre as "undanceable". A few years later, it was premiered in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), by which time Prokofiev, aware of its dramatic effect, had already arranged the music into three very effective concert suites. In the Tsarist Empire, Prokofiev was considered the enfant terrible of Russian music. And even in the Soviet Union, to which he had later returned after emigrating, his music struggled. His sometimes brusque tonal language with its ferocious dynamics disturbed many a cultural bureaucrat. He died on the same day as Stalin, which was why there were neither flowers nor musicians at his funeral - instead, a recording of "Romeo and Juliet" was played.
