San Francisco Symphony & Esa-Pekka Salonen - Prokofiev: Music from Romeo and Juliet (2024) [Hi-Res]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony announce the upcoming release of three new digital-only spatial audio recordings from SFS Media: Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird (June 21), Sergei Prokofiev’s Music from Romeo and Juliet (August 2), and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (September 23). Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique were recorded live in concert with Salonen and the Orchestra in October 2022, and Prokofiev’s Music from Romeo and Juliet was recorded live in concert with Salonen and the Orchestra in February 2023. All recordings will be available exclusively via the Apple Music Classical app.

The San Francisco Symphony began its partnership with Apple Music Classical when the classical music streaming app launched in March 2023. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Orchestra have previously released eight spatial audio recordings through Apple Music Classical, including Anders Hillborg’s Kongsgaard Variations, György Ligeti’s Clocks and Clouds and Ramifications, Elizabeth Ogonek’s Sleep & Unremembrance, Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which was nominated for a 2024 Grammy® Award for Best Orchestral Performance. The San Francisco Symphony Chorus and former Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin’s recording of György Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna, which was nominated for a 2024 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Performance, was also released through Apple Music Classical.

With Apple Music Classical, Apple Music subscribers can easily find any recording in the world’s largest classical music catalog with fully optimized search; enjoy the highest audio quality available and experience many classical favorites in a whole new way with immersive Spatial Audio; browse expertly curated playlists, insightful composer biographies, and descriptions of thousands of works; and more. Apple Music Classical is available on the App Store and is included at no extra cost with nearly all Apple Music subscriptions. The combination of Apple Music Classical and Apple Music provides a complete music experience for everyone, from longtime classical fans to first-time listeners, and everyone in between.

About Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird
After attending a performance of Hamlet in Paris, Hector Berlioz fell instantly and wildly in love with actress Harriet Smithson. He was then inspired to write Symphonie fantastique, a vaguely autobiographical symphony in which Berlioz imagines poisoning himself with opium and, in a psychedelic haze, envisions himself killing his beloved and being sentenced to death. Berlioz and Smithson married a year after meeting for the first time at the work’s second premiere, but ultimately separated a decade later.

Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet music to Romeo and Juliet depicts the fierce war between the Montagues and Capulets, set in contrast to the affair of the two titular star-crossed lovers. Conductors often mix and match selections from the three Romeo and Juliet suites to make their own compilations. Esa-Pekka Salonen’s version for this concert recording is especially substantial, pulling together 11 numbers that trace most of Shakespeare’s play.

A groundbreaking ballet based on Russian folk tales of the mystical Firebird, Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird tells the story of a young prince who defeats an evil king with a golden egg. The Firebird was Stravinsky’s first major piece to garner wide acclaim, setting him on course to write The Rite of Spring and other innovative works over the next five decades. He revisited The Firebird three times (in 1911, 1919, and 1945) to create suites for concert performances. Of these, the 1919 suite is the most frequently performed; in this particular recording, Salonen and the Symphony perform the complete ballet music as Stravinsky originally conceived it.

These recordings were produced and edited by Jason O’Connell. Jon Johannsen was the recording engineer, and Mark Willsher was the mastering and mixing engineer.