Description
Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf in 1936 following his return to the Soviet Union after his 18-year voluntary exile in the United States and Paris. It was commissioned by Natalya Sats, director of Moscow’s Central Children’s Theatre. She wanted a piece of music for children that told an entertaining story whilst also introducing to them different musical instruments.
For the libretto Prokofiev initially worked with a poet but he was dissatisfied with her work, so he set about writing his own story and narration. Prokofiev’s story centres around Peter (a Young Soviet Pioneer – the Soviet equivalent of a Boy Scout), who, defying his grandfather’s words of warning, defeats and captures a hungry wolf, with the help of a few animal friends. Each character has its own theme. In this version for wind quintet Peter’s theme is shared amongst the players, whilst the other characters are portrayed by individual instruments: the bird is played by a flute; the duck by an oboe; the cat by a clarinet; the grandfather by a bassoon; and the wolf by a horn (backed up by the clarinet and bassoon).
Peter and the Wolf premiered in Moscow in May 1936, but its popularity really took off following its first performance in the USA, in Boston, 1938. Walt Disney almost included a Peter and the Wolf segment in his animated/classical music anthology Fantasia (1940), but eventually decided against it. He did, however, include it in Make Mine Music (1946).
Peter and the Wolf has been recorded hundreds of times in numerous languages. It is one of Prokofiev’s most frequently performed works, and, indeed, in the entire classical repertoire.
