Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf [SACD] > Reviews > Peter and the Wolf; a musical fairy tale.

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Useful for helping to teach yung children about musical instruments
Disadvantages:	The story is a little bit grown up for some of the younger audiences .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Sergei Prokofiev is a fantastic composer and this is one of his best works. Peter and the Wolf is a story about how a child disobeys his gandfathers advice, and has a rather scary encounter with a wolf. He is saved by some huntsmen and the story ends happily. Each of the characters has its own representative instrument from the orchestra. Peter, a young boy is represented by the strings, who have lots of tunes with excellent harmonies. Peter's grandfather, whom Peter ignores, is played by the bassoons, a personal favourite of mine as i myself play one. I think that the bassoon has been chosen to play the grand father because it has a sense of age, and, being a bass instrument, has a sense of authority and towards the end sternness for the disobedience of Peter. Throughout the tale there are animals. The cat is played by the clarinets, the bird by the flutes and the duck by the oboes. All of these characters have minor but pivotal roles in the story. The wolf itself is played by the french horns, as they have a mellow quality that lends itself well to the main "baddy" of the recording. The final characters who come in at the end to save the day are hunters who are played by the kettle drums to lend a sinister quality.
This is an excellent recording, and definitely worth buying. You can pick one up for about £5, but depending on the recording the prices could reach £20