"New digital recording", proclaims the cover of Ashkenazy's account of the complete ballet, presumably to justify its release at full price.
That's 50% right anyway - the recording is digital, but it takes a record company's hype to describe it as new, since it dates from 1991, and only appears now, presumably, to cash in on the Prokofiev anniversary this year. Decca's reluctance to release the performance any earlier is not easy to explain; this may not be a remarkable account of the ballet - Ashkenazy and the RPO more than a decade ago are hardly a match for, say, Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra in this work - but it is a thoroughly musical one, with its strengths lying in the quieter, more reflective numbers, many of which are beautifully shaped.
What is missing, though, is any pungency in the playing, any swagger in the larger-than-life set pieces. In the end, this is a rather tame view of what should be a much grittier and less self-consciously ingratiating score.
