JAVS Fall 2011

tle-known Borisovsky transcription of the Parting Scene and Death of Juliet for violin and piano, in the ballet’s original key (as opposed to the transposed viola version). Background to the Ballet and Prokofiev’s Arrangements Although Romeo and Juliet is among Prokofiev’s most loved scores today, its creation was not at all easy. The Kirov Theatre commissioned a ballet work from Prokofiev in 1934, but political changes led to the cancellation of the planned staging of Romeo and Juliet . After the commission was transferred to the Bolshoi Ballet, the score was completed in the sum mer of 1935, only to be declared “impossible to dance to.” 1 There was even an attempt to create a happy ending for the ballet by allowing Romeo to arrive a minute earlier and find Juliet still alive, since “living people can dance, the dying cannot,” 2 and the composer was forced to insert additional solo dances and thicken the orchestration to meet demands of the choreographer and dancers. The bal let remained unperformed until its 1938 premiere in Brno, but in the intervening years Prokofiev crafted two Symphonic Suites and a piano transcription of ten pieces from the material (based on the compos er’s piano score from which the work was orchestrat ed), all of which were well received by the public. Borisovsky’s Transcriptions Moscow-born Vadim Vasilyevich Borisovsky (1900–72) is known to many as the founder of the Russian Viola School. he began his studies as a vio linist in the Moscow Conservatory but soon trans ferred to the viola, and upon graduation in 1922 formed the Beethoven Quartet with colleagues, remaining their violist until 1964. he also became Professor of Viola at the Conservatory only five years after graduating and performed frequently on both viola and viola d’amore. he was an all too rare example of a truly “complete musician”—recitalist, chamber musician, pedagogue, and composer/arr anger. Shostakovich dedicated his Thirteenth String Quartet to Borisovsky and wrote of his tremendous

piano, but there are also many questionable issues that could have been explored and—where neces sary—corrected, not only in terms of notes, but also tempo markings and placing of dynamics. Sikorski, another of Boosey’s sister companies, later brought out two suites: one of four extracts (4, 6, 8, 11) and one of eight (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11); the set of eight represents the complete first set of extracts arranged by Borisovsky. These have remained the most accessible versions to purchase, but the lack of extract 16, Parting Scene and Death of Juliet , proba bly the most moving of all the fragments, has disap pointed many violists. The great violist, conductor, and arranger Rudolf Barshai transcribed five movements from the ballet, which he then recorded. Barshai was a pupil of Borisovsky, and his record, The Enchanting Sound of a Viola (which includes two ravishing Borisovsky tran scriptions of Ravel and Debussy), was made available for download earlier this year. Barshai transcribed three extracts in common with Borisovsky: The Street Awakens (very similar to Borisovsky’s version), Death of Mercutio (largely similar in technique and texture, but in Prokofiev’s original key rather than Borisovsky’s transposed version), and Romeo at Friar Laurence’s Home (a much shorter version). In addi tion, he arranged Masks and Dance of the Lily Maidens , which may well have been modeled on David Grunes’s violin/cello transcriptions detailed below, but no published version appears to be acces sible, if one was indeed ever published. A number of other musicians have made arrange ments from the ballet for stringed instruments— most famously Jascha heifitz’s Masks , but more sig nificantly three extracts by David Grunes, released in 1942 by another short-lived company, Russian American Music Publishers. These include a similar, though slightly less virtuosic transcription of Masks , along with Dance of the Knights and Dance of the Lily Maidens . Isaac Stern frequently performed this trip tych, and Grunes’s additional version for cello and piano made it very easy to arrange the outer extracts for viola to add to Borisovsky’s suites. There is also beautiful footage of David Oistrakh playing the lit

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