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The underlying purpose here is to present, for the first time, the arrangements of some of these pieces for clarinet and piano by Bolshoi Theatre clarinetist Bronislav Fedotovich Prorvich. From Cinderella he arranged The Dancing Lesson, Winter Fairy, Passepied, and Adagio. From Romeo and Juliet he arranged Juliet’s Entrance, Masks, Dance of the Knights, and Mercutio. In each case, this led to a mini-suite of about 13 minutes’ duration, created in the 1950s but not previously recorded.

Ian Scott, working with Malcolm McMillan, arranged seven additional Cinderella numbers and five more from Romeo and Juliet to produce the suites heard on this recording, on which Scott plays clarinet and Jonathan Higgins is the pianist. The purpose here is to showcase the clarinet’s capabilities in this music; to bring Prorvich’s work to light; and to present well-known works in a way they have not been heard before. All this is fine, and certainly the warmth of the clarinet fits much of this music very well indeed – although, it should be pointed out, not as well as Prokofiev’s original and very sensitive orchestral settings.

Everything here sounds good and is played well, and the CD is an enjoyable curiosity that will be of special interest to clarinetists and to listeners who have become somewhat jaded by the original Prokofiev scores and will welcome the chance to hear portions of them in a new guise. It is hard to imagine, though, that anything here will supplant audience interest in hearing the music – whether the full ballets or excerpts from them – as Prokofiev intended.