Romeo And Juliet - The Vienna State Philharmonia

Tchaikovsky
Romeo And Juliet
1812 Overture, Opus 49
Marche Slave, Opus 31
Conductor: Jonel Perlea
The Vienna State Philharmonia
Cover: Salome Jens as Juliet
Photographed by Walter Bursten
The Crowell-Collier Record Guild RG 140
1957

From the back cover: One of the great conductors of our time, Jones Perlea was born in Ogranda, Rumania, of a German mother and a Rumanian father. He composed his first pieces at the age of nine, prompting his parents to send him to Munich, where he studied at the Leipzig Conservatory. He was engaged as assistant conductor at the Leipzig Opera, then as regular conductor in Rostock. At thirty he assumed the dual post of general manager and musical directory of the Bucharest Opera, while also conducting the Bucharest Philharmonic and many radio concerts. From 1936 to 1944 he served as professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Bucharest, and he toured Europe as a guest conductor. After a year's internment in a German concentration camp, Perlea came to Italy in 1945. His first concert with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome was an immediate success, and he remained in Italy for four years, conducting chiefly at La Scala in Milan. Perlea made his American debut conducting Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera in 1949. When he led the NBC Symphony the following year, the New York Times commented on "the delights of the program... over-all clarity of texture... the beat always firm... rhythms had life and grace..." Maestro Perlea how divides his time between conducting here and abroad.