161216 "Es war die Nachtigall, und nicht die Lerche..." (Auszug)

8
PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY...
Since 1962, Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, “Romeo and Juliet” has been performed by the
Stuttgart State Opera in the splendid and legendary choreography of John Cranko. After a
guest performance in the United States in 1969, it started its triumphal march through the
entire world which continues to this day.
The Leningrad Kirov Ballet version of Prokofiev’s score has been played from the
orchestra pit for over 50 years in Stuttgart, and was published by Hamburg publishing
house Sikorski. A large number of different conductors have led many rehearsals and
performances of Romeo and Juliet since its premiere in Stuttgart. As violinist during my
35 years of work with the Stuttgart State Orchestra, I have participated in not just a few of
these.
The conductors stepped on the podium with their choice of either the “house’s own” score
by Sikorski or with the somewhat handier, smaller score of Schirmer’s, the Russian edition
of Kalmus. If during rehearsals any questions arose, these were “clarified” with a look
into the respective score then being used. This contributed over the years and decades to
a mishmash of ambiguities that are documented by the corresponding entries in the pitch
materials.
In fact, the two scores by Sikorski and Kalmus exhibit substantial differences. This involves
not just the instructions on articulation and dynamics but the notes on the sheet music
itself. The current study is concerned with these divergences which are introduced and
investigated here. For their resolution in many cases, the piano scores as well as the scores
of the three Romeo and Juliet orchestral suites were consulted. The solutions found and
proposed during this work for Stuttgart serve merely to complete this documentation
which otherwise in no way raises the claim for completeness.
It should be noted that in this study, the changes that were at one time made by a musician
at the Bolshoi in order the strengthen the overall sound as, for example, in Nos. 22, 24
and 30 were not considered in this study. Likewise, “forgotten” or different dynamic
designations of subordinate meaning, missing pauses and meaningless differences in
articulation were not incorporated in the comparison.
So let this document serve as a kind of reference book for the conductors of today and
tomorrow as well as all instrumentalists in order to be helpful with decisions as to which of
the different versions represents the original or as the case may be, the more correct one.
My special thanks go to the Music Director of the Stuttgart Ballet, James Tuggle and his
deputy, Assistant Music Director Wolfgang Heinz for their great support during the
realization of this work.
Stuttgart, during December 2016
Roland Heuer