SERGEI PROKOFIEV 1891–1953 PETER AND THE WOLF, Op.67 A symphonic fairy tale for children

1 The Story Begins 1.01 2 The Bird 1.42 3 The Duck; Dialogue with the Bird; Attack of the Cat 4.14 4 Grandfather 2.22 5 The Wolf 1.32 6 The Duck Is Caught 1.26 7 The Wolf Stalks the Bird and Cat 1.38 8 Peter Prepares to Catch the Wolf 1.12 9 The Bird Diverts the Wolf 1.29 10 Peter Catches the Wolf 1.50 11 The Hunters Arrive 2.10 12 The Procession to the Zoo 4.39

Cormac Henry flute · Jonathan Small oboe Jernej Albreht clarinet · Nina Ashton bassoon Timothy Jackson, Simon Griffiths, Timothy Nicholson horns Rhys Owens trumpet · Simon Chappell trombone Adi Brett leader

2 CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS 1835–1921 THE CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS A zoological fantasy with accompanying verses by OGDEN NASH 1902–1971

13 verse Introduction 0.25 28 music 2.40 14 music 0.33 29 verse People with Long Ears 0.04 15 verse Royal March of the Lion 0.22 30 music 0.34 16 music 1.41 31 verse The Cuckoo in the Middle of the Wood 0.10 17 verse Hens and Roosters 0.12 32 music 2.28 18 music 0.46 33 verse Aviary 0.30 19 verse Wild Asses 0.23 34 music 1.17 20 music 0.39 35 verse Pianists 0.17 21 verse Tortoises 0.22 36 music 1.12 22 music 2.43 37 verse Fossils 0.35 23 verse The Elephant 0.17 38 music 1.17 24 music 1.24 39 verse The Swan 0.13 Marcel Becker double bass solo 40 music 2.49 Jonathan Aasgaard cello solo 25 verse Kangaroos 0.13 26 music 0.54 41 verse Finale 0.29 27 verse Aquarium 0.19 42 music 2.15

 Richard Casey, Ian Buckle pianos · Cormac Henry flute · Jernej Albreht clarinet Graham Johns xylophone · Alasdair Malloy glass harmonica Adi Brett violin 1 · Kate Richardson violin 2 · Catherine Marwood viola Hilary Browning cello · Marcel Becker double bass

3 SERGEI PROKOFIEV 1891–1953 PETER AND THE WOLF, An entertainment for speaker & orchestra from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot 1888–1965

43 Overture 2.08 44 The Naming of Cats 3.38 45 The Old Gumbie Cat 5.12 46 Gus: The Theatre Cat 4.00 47 Bustopher Jones: The Cat about Town 3.11 48 Old Deuteronomy 4.35 49 The Song of the Jellicles 1.30

Total Timing: 77.49

ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG narrator ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA VASILY PETRENKO

4 “We had a record of Peter and the Wolf when we were little, and I think I must have listened to that from a very young age because I can’t remember not knowing it. “The narration is sort of part-and-parcel of it, and it’s incredibly clever how it just pins it down in a child’s imagination and knowledge. Imagination in the sense of them enjoying the picture, the scene that’s conjured by Prokofiev. But also knowledge in knowing that instrument: I knew a clarinet from the cat, I knew an oboe from the duck, I know a flute from the bird. “It’s very exciting to be moving onto a narration project like this after having done quite a lot of narration myself in my role as an actor and as presenter. But also using my experience having now recorded as a solo singer, I’ve had a musical side and an acting side, and I see them both as using the same sort of discipline. A sort of musicality is involved in narration, so in a funny way it seems like a very logical thing for me to be doing and I really love the idea of recording – and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – recording this wonderful repertoire.” Alexander Armstrong

“It’s a great opportunity to give it to the next generation and to bring the next generation to the world of classical music, into the world of tales, into the world of emotions of classical music. This piece is so brisk, and so bright, and it’s easy to understand this piece at any age. “In this piece, you have to show the faces of all the personage. It’s Peter, it’s the grandfather, the bird, the duck, the wolf, it’s cat: hunters all together – and to make it in one single phrase quite often, it requires very special skills and a very special task, and I think Alexander is capable and able to do that.” Vasily Petrenko

5 PETER AND THE WOLF 1 arly one morning, 2 On a branch of a big tree sat Peter opened the gate a little bird, Peter’s friend. E and walked out into “All is quiet!” chirped the bird, gaily. the big green meadow. 3 Just then, a duck came waddling round. She was glad Peter had not closed the gate and decided to take a nice swim in the deep pond in the meadow. Seeing the duck, the little bird flew down upon on the grass, settled next to her and shrugged his shoulders. “What kind of bird are you if you can’t fly?” said he. To this, the duck replied, “What kind of bird are you if you can’t swim?” and dived into the pond.

6 They argued and argued, the duck swimming in the pond, the 6 The duck quacked, and in her excitement jumped out of the pond. little bird hopping along the shore. Suddenly, something caught But no matter how hard the duck tried to run, she couldn’t escape Peter’s attention. He noticed a cat crawling through the grass. the wolf. He was getting nearer, nearer!, catching up with her! And The cat thought; “The bird is busy arguing, I’ll just grab him”. then he got her and with one gulp, swallowed her. Stealthily she crept towards him on her velvet paws. “Look out!” shouted Peter and the bird immediately flew up into the tree. While the duck quacked angrily at the cat, from the middle of the pond. The cat walked around the tree and thought, “Is it worth climbing up so high? By the time I get there the bird will have flown away.” 4 Grandfather came out. He was angry because Peter had gone in the meadow. “It is a dangerous place! If a wolf should come out of the forest, then what would you do?” Peter paid no attention to his grandfather’s words. Boys like him are not afraid of wolves. But Grandfather took Peter by the hand, locked the gate and led him home. 5 No sooner had Peter gone, than a big grey wolf came out of the forest. In a twinkling, the cat climbed up the tree.

7 7 And now, this is how things stood: the cat was sitting on one branch, the bird on another, not too close to the cat. And the wolf walked round and round the tree, looking at them with greedy eyes. 8 In the meantime, Peter, without the slightest fear, stood behind the closed gate watching all that was going on. He ran home, got a strong rope, and climbed up the high stone wall. One of the branches of the tree around which the wolf was walking stretched out over the wall. Grabbing hold of the branch, Peter lightly climbed over, onto the tree. 9 Peter said to the bird: “Fly down and circle round the wolf’s head, only take care he doesn’t catch you.” The bird almost touched the wolf’s head with his wings while the wolf snapped angrily at him from this side and that. How the bird did worry the wolf – how he wanted to catch him! But the bird was cleverer, and the wolf simply couldn’t do anything about it.

8 10 Meanwhile, Peter made a lasso and carefully letting it down, caught the wolf by the tail and pulled with all his might! Feeling himself caught, the wolf began to jump wildly trying to get loose. But Peter tied the other end of rope to the tree, and the wolf’s jumping only made the rope round his tail tighter. 11 Just then, the hunters came out of the woods, following the wolf’s trail and shooting as they went. But Peter, sitting in the tree, said: “Don’t shoot! Birdie and I have caught the wolf! Now help us to take him to the zoo.” 12 And there, imagine the triumphant procession. Peter at the head. After him the hunters leading the wolf. And winding up the procession, Grandfather and the cat. Grandfather tossed his head discontentedly. “Well, and if Peter hadn’t caught the wolf? What then?” Above them flew Birdie chirping merrily, “My, what brave fellows we are, Peter and I! Look what we have caught! And if one would listen very carefully, he could hear the duck quacking inside the wolf, because the wolf, in his hurry, had swallowed her alive.”

Text: C Copyright 1937 by Hawkes & Son (London) Ltd. Reproduced by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd

9 ostalgia and yearning for home surely influenced Prokofiev’s decision to exchange exile in Paris for life in Soviet Russia. Recent research suggests that the composer believed the N regime would encourage his well-established international career. His belief was reinforced and rewarded in the late 1930s by the grant of rare travel permits, before the reality of life under Stalin’s dictatorship closed in on Prokofiev. The composer’s transition to a new country was eased by commissions to write a new ballet for the Bolshoi Theatre and a cantata to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution. Work on both was delayed by bureaucratic meddling, a dangerous condition in the early stages of Stalin’s Great Purge. Yet he forged ahead with other scores, channelling Soviet demands for melodious music for the masses into a series of popular masterworks.

Soon after moving to Moscow in March 1936, Prokofiev was approached by Natalya Sats, charismatic director of the Moscow Children’s Theatre. She suggested that he should compose a “symphonic fairy tale”, to introduce a young audience to the instruments of the orchestra. Prokofiev’s lightning-quick response, completed within a few weeks, delivered a work for narrator and orchestra in which each character in the story is represented by an individual instrument or family of instruments. The piece also projects the qualities of self-reliance and fortitude required of Young Pioneers, the Soviet version of the Scout Movement.

Prokofiev’s English-language notes provide an ideal introduction to Peter and the Wolf. “Each character of this tale”, he observed, “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 world by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the kettledrums and bass drum.” The work’s original text, written by Prokofiev in consultation with Sats, marries the eerie world of Russian folktales to the humour and charm of early Walt Disney. It recalls how Peter rescues a bird from tomcat torture; in return, the grateful bird and a group of hunters help Peter trap a hungry wolf, but not before the creature has downed a distracted duck. Peter’s wolf-fearing grandfather finally drags the boy home, while the duck quacks its last from the wolf’s belly.

Peter and the Wolf became a worldwide success, its text translated into many languages and the work choreographed, staged and even given the full Disney treatment.

Alexander Armstrong is the latest to join the diverse and distinguished club of Peter narrators on record. His fellow members include David Tennant, Willie Rushton, Lenny Henry, David Attenborough, Dame Edna Everage, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Sophia Loren, Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Peter Ustinov, Dudley Moore, Terry Wogan, David Bowie, Sean Connery and Alec Guinness.

11 CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS

gden Nash, whose name could easily be mistaken for a character from children’s fiction, found humour in everything from income Otax returns to the common cold. The American poet had a way with verse, often making rhymes where they had no business to be, inventing words here, reshaping others there. In 1949 he was invited to write verses for a Columbia Masterworks recording of Carnival of the Animals. Nash’s words were recited by Noël Coward, popular with millions in post-war America thanks to his frequent television appearances. Saint-Saëns’ music, meanwhile, was recorded under the direction of another public favourite, the Russian-born conductor André Kostelanetz.

12 Nash absorbed the composition’s spirit, adding to its charm while reinforcing its humour. Camille Saint-Saëns created his suite of zoological portraits in February 1886. The French composer, if not quite “wracked with pains”, wrote the piece to raise his spirits following a poorly received performance of his music in Berlin. He rattled off its fourteen movements within days, amusing himself by poking fun at his own and other composers’ music. The work’s first performance was given in private in Paris in March 1886. Saint-Saëns would not allow Carnival of the Animals to be performed in public or published, although he agreed

13 to release “The Swan” as a freestanding work for cello and piano. Carnival, he thought, would draw criticism for its parodies of music by the living and the dead. The composition was published five months after Saint-Saëns’ death and became an instant hit, thanks not least to its parodies. Offenbach’s celebrated can-can, for example, receives a slow-mo makeover as a dance for tortoises, while “The Elephant” evolves from a plodding version of Berlioz’s “Dance of the Sylphs”. The game of spot the reference continues in “Fossils”, which blends Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre and the aria “Una voce poco fa” from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville with “Twinkle, twinkle little star” and “Au clair de la lune”. PRACTICAL CATS

ancashire born and bred, Alan Rawsthorne took brief stabs at dentistry and architecture Lbefore enrolling at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1925. He made his mark with a fine First Piano Concerto and, following military service during the Second World War, emerged as one of the most distinctive English composers of his generation. Rawsthorne reached an audience of millions with his film scores for Ealing Studios, including The Cruel Sea in 1953. The following year, he created settings for speaker and orchestra of six poems from T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939).

The composer conducted the work’s first recording, made for EMI with the Philharmonia Orchestra soon after its world premiere in August 1954. The actor Robert Donat, star of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr Chips, recorded Eliot’s verses while audibly battling against the chronic asthma that blighted his career.

15 Rawsthorne’s Practical Cats was Recorded: 16–18 & 27.V.2007, The Friary, commissioned by the Edinburgh Liverpool; 20–21.VI.2017, The Firepit, London Vocal overdubbing recorded Festival for a children’s concert. at The Firepit, London Yet many of its musical jokes – Producer: Andrew Cornall some at the expense of William Engineers: Philip Siney (orchestra recording), Julian Simmons (vocal overdubbing) Walton – and crafty allusions Mixing by Philip Siney to classical compositions were Editing: Ian Watson clearly intended for an older, Publishers: Boosey & Hawkes (1–12); more knowing audience. Oxford University Press (43–49) Booklet notes by Andrew Stewart Booklet editorial: WLP Ltd Design & artwork by Paul Marc Mitchell Cover photo: David Scheinmann P 2017 Parlophone Records Limited C 2017 Parlophone Records Limited, a Warner Music Group Company www.warnerclassics.com DDD

All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance 16 and broadcasting of this record prohibited. Made in the EU. 0190295759506 STEREO DDD LC 02822 Manufactured and printed in the EU. P & C 2017 Parlophone Records Limited, a Warner Music Group Company. www.warnerclassics.com

All rights of the producer and of the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting of this record prohibited.