Various Artists – Peter And The Wolf (1975)

Jack Lancaster and Robin Lumley came up with this really exciting project in 1975:

Peter and the Wolf is an album adapting Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf by Jack Lancaster and Robin Lumley released in 1975.

It features a rock arrangement of Prokofiev’s music. Performers on the album include Jack Lancaster, Robin Lumley, Gary Brooker, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Julie Tippett, Stephane Grappelli, Jon Hiseman, Brian Eno, Alvin Lee, Gary Moore, Cozy Powell, Manfred Mann, Keith Tippett, Viv Stanshall, and the English Chorale.

This album is notable for featuring several musicians from Brand X, who would release their debut album the following year. (wikipedia)

Alternate frontcover:

I saw this album a couple decades ago resting on the jazz shelf of a commercial record store, section I don’t usually look at, but something I still don’t know made me take a look, so I stopped to read the credits, I couldn’t believe my eyes, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, Cozy Powell, Brian Eno, Chris Spedding, Manfred Mann and even the crazy Viv Stanshal in the narrations, without haven’t heard a single note I bought it (This was usual when there was no Internet or MP3), even when it was classified as Jazz, genre that’s not my cup of tea, mostly because it was very cheap being that the only copy had several months in the store.

I was not disappointed despite the fact that I was familiar to Prokofiev’s version and expected something much more closer to the original, what is not exactly the case because even when the structure is very similar to the original being that each musician takes the role of a character, the instruments used are completely different, don’t expect to find oboes as in the original work, but be sure that the instrumentation and even the vocals are perfect for the new version.

Producer Dennis Mackay and Jack Lancaster at Trident Studios in 1975:

What I can’t assure is if it’s closer to Rock, Prog or Jazz, because all the genres and styles gently blend one with the other as if they were created to be listened together in one work, and everybody will agree that the balance is perfect and the music is outstanding, so it’s worth the price paid for it despite the genre.

I simply love Manfred Mann’s keyboard interpretation of Peter, absolutely jazzy but with a perfect touch of his classic style, Peter’s Theme is one of the strongest tracks of the album, but it’s also important to notice the excellent work done by Gary Moore and Chris Spedding as The Duck plus the excellent track The Hunters with the impeccable drums work.

Of course nothing would be the same without the perfect narration by the amazing Viv Stanshal from The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, who gives the credibility required for the role with his perfect accent as if he would left behind his days of craziness and adventures with Keith Moon, but without loosing his sense of humor including burps and satiric phrases.

It’s not easy to write much more about this album, because there are hundreds of small details that must be appreciated by the individual listener and many more that surely I can’t describe with my modest English, but part of the fun is to discover new things each and every time you play the album instead of reading about them.

If you got it, take good care because it’s hard to find, but if you don’t, use any available contact and buy it, it’s a must have. (by Ivan_Melgar_M)

A truly remarkable concept album with lots of imaginative and sometimes surprising sounds, recorded by truly renowned British jazz and rock musicians (just read the cast list!).

Personnel:
Gary Brooker (synthesizer bei 02., 03.)
Bill Bruford (drums bei 13.)
Phil Collins (drums bei 02., 05., 06., 08., 10., 11.,13., 14. + 16. percussion on 12., vibraphone bei 02.)
Eno (synthesizer bei 08., 10. + 12.)
Bernie Frost (vocals bei 14.)
John Goodsall (guitar bei 02., 05., 06., 10., 11.
Stephane Grappelli (violin bei 04., 07. + 10.)
Pete Haywood (steel guitar bei 01., 02.)
Jon Hiseman (drums bei 13.)
Percy Jones (bass bei 01., 02., 05., 06., 08., 10., 11. + 16.)
Jack Lancaster (lyricon bei 01.,06., 12. – 14. + 16. saxophone bei 01., 06., 14. + 16., violin bei 10., flute bei 13., clarinet bei 16.)
Alvin Lee (guitar bei 04. + 16.)
Henry Lowther (violin bei 05., trumpet bei 13.)
Robin Lumley (piano bei 01., 02., 06., 08.,10.,12., 14. + 16., synthesizer bei 01., 08., 10., 11.,12., strings bei 02., clarinet bei 05.)
Manfred Mann (synthesizer bei 02.)
Dave Marquee (bass bei 04., 07.
Erika Michailenko (chimes bei 01., 02.)
Gary Moore (guitar bei 01. – 03., 05., 11., 14. – 16.)
Cozy Powell (drums bei 01., 13.)
Andy Pyle (bass bei 02., 14.)
Chris Spedding (guitar bei 08.)
Julie Tippett (vocals bei 01. + 16.)
Keith Tippett (piano bei 02.)
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English Chorale (vocals bei 09.)
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background vocals bei 16.:
Bernie Frost – Bob Sargeant – Erika Michailenko
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Viv Stanshall (narrator)

Tracklist:
01. Introduction 1.06
02. Peter’s Theme 2.11
03. Bird And Peter 0.06
04. Duck Theme 1.00
05. Pond 0.47
06. Duck And Bird 2.12
07. Cat Dance 0.30
08. Cat And Duck 1.33
09. Grandfather 3.05
10. Cat 0.35
11. Wolf 0.47
12. Wolf And Duck 3.42
13. Threnody For A Duck 1.52
14. Wolf Stalks 0.58
15. Cat In Tree 2.14
16. Peter’s Chase 1.47
17. Capture Of Wolf 1.28
21. Final Theme 5.09

Music: Sergei Prokofiev – Jack Lancaster – Robin Lumley
Lyrics: unknown

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Sergei Prokofiev – Peter And The Wolf (Herbert von Karajan – narrated by Peter Ustinov) (1959)

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, a ‘symphonic fairy tale for children’, is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children’s story, while the orchestra illustrates it. It is Prokofiev’s most frequently performed work, and one of the most frequently performed works in the entire classical repertoire. It has been recorded many times.

In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats, the director of the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow, to write a musical symphony for children. Sats and Prokofiev had become acquainted after he visited her theatre with his sons several times. The intent was to introduce children to the individual instruments of the orchestra. The first draft of the libretto was about a Young Pioneer (the Soviet version of a Boy Scout) called Peter who rights a wrong by challenging an adult. (This was a common theme in propaganda aimed at children in the USSR at the time.) However, Prokofiev was dissatisfied with the rhyming text produced by Antonina Sakonskaya, a then popular children’s author. Prokofiev wrote a new version where Peter captures a wolf. As well as promoting desired Pioneer virtues such as vigilance, bravery and resourcefulness, the plot illustrates Soviet themes such as the stubbornness of the un-Bolshevik older generation (the grandfather) and the triumph of Man (Peter) taming Nature (the wolf).

Prokofiev produced a version for the piano in under a week, finishing it on April 15. The orchestration was finished on April 24. The work debuted at a children’s concert in the main hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow Philharmonic on 2 May 1936. However, Sats was ill and the substitute narrator inexperienced, and the performance failed to attract much attention.[1][3][4][5] Later that month a much more successful performance with Sats narrating was given at the Moscow Pioneers Palace. The American premiere took place in March 1938, with Prokofiev himself conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Boston with Richard Hale narrating. By that time Sats was serving a sentence in the gulag, where she was sent after her lover Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky was shot in June 1937.

Peter, a Young Pioneer, lives at his grandfather’s home in a forest clearing. One day, Peter goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and the duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby. The duck starts arguing with a little bird (“What kind of bird are you if you can’t fly?” – “What kind of bird are you if you can’t swim?”). Peter’s pet cat stalks them quietly, and the bird—warned by Peter—flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond.

Peter’s grandfather scolds him for being outside in the meadow alone (“Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?”), and, when he defies him, saying: “Boys like me are not afraid of wolves”, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Soon afterwards “a big, grey wolf” does indeed come out of the forest. The cat quickly climbs into a tree, but the duck, who has jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken, and swallowed by the wolf.

Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf’s head to distract it, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by its tail. The wolf struggles to get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree and the noose only gets tighter.

Some hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, come out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf to a zoo in a victory parade (the piece was first performed for an audience of Young Pioneers during May Day celebrations) that includes himself, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat, and grumpy grumbling Grandfather (“What if Peter hadn’t caught the wolf? What then?”)

In the story’s ending, the listener is told: “If you listen very carefully, you’ll hear the duck quacking inside the wolf’s belly, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive.”
Performance directions

Prokofiev produced detailed performance notes in both English and Russian for Peter and the Wolf. According to the English version:

Each character of this tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the kettle drums and bass drum. Before an orchestral performance it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play on them the corresponding leitmotivs. Thereby, the children learn to distinguish the sonorities of the instruments during the performance of this tale. (by wikipedia)

And here´s a nive version with the great Peter Ustinov as narrator and Herbert von Karajan as the conductor of The Philharmonia Orchestra.

What a nicy musical fairy tale !

Personnel:
Peter Ustinov (narrator)
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The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Tracklist:
01. Peter And The Wolf (Prokofiev) (Part 1) 14.23
02. Peter And The Wolf (Prokofiev) (Part 2) 14.34
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03. Toy Symphony (Haydn) 11.01

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