Romeo and Juliet (transcription of the ballet for piano), Op. 64 (1936)

Composed during an intense burst of creativity in the summer of 1935, Romeo and Juliet initially generated controversy. Prokofiev first conceived an alternative ending in which the two protagonists survive, believing that “living people can dance, the dying cannot.” He later restored Shakespeare’s tragic conclusion, convinced that the dramatic ending could be effectively conveyed through dance and music.

Before the ballet reached the stage, the score encountered resistance from the Bolshoi Ballet, whose directors considered it unsuitable for dancing. In response, Prokofiev extracted concert versions from the music, helping to establish the work’s reputation before its eventual theatrical success. The ballet received its world premiere in Brno in 1938, followed by its first Soviet production in Leningrad in 1940.

The piano transcription preserves the expressive range and dramatic concentration of the original score. Despite the ballet’s considerable scale, the music is remarkably focused, combining lyrical tenderness, rhythmic vitality, and powerful characterization. Like the great ballets of Tchaikovsky, Romeo and Juliet is carefully structured as both a dramatic narrative and a self-sufficient musical work, allowing its themes, emotions, and contrasts to communicate with equal force in the concert hall.