Some of the most immediately attractive music of the Russian composer Prokofiev can be found in his ballets. His music for a ballet based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was at first rejected by the authorities as undanceable, but has since become a strong element in Russian and international ballet. Cinderella, written during the Great Patriotic War, Soviet Russia's struggle with Nazi Germany, shows nothing of this in its magical treatment of a magical story.
Recommended recording
Prokofiev: Suites from Romeo and Juliet & Cinderella, played by the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Mogrelia and the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra under Theodore Kuchar respectively.
Naxos 8.553273
