The story of Romeo and Juliet has long been an inspiration for composers, and this programme provides an opportunity to compare two 19th-century masters’ musical visions of the famous parting scene, Act III, Scene V of Shakespeare’s play. Left unfinished at his death, Tchaikovsky’s composition uses themes from his renowned Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasia, giving the singers some of the most beautiful and impassioned moments in all music. Gounod’s opera has a wealth of marvellous duets, Act IV moving from a song of love to those achingly tragic final scenes. Although remembered manly for his film scores, Franz Waxman conducted standard programmes of symphonic music in America, Europe, Israel and Russia, and made recordings with outstanding soloists such as Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern and the three American singers heard on this reissue.