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.