Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf

Warner Classics / 2017

Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 (1936) is a ‘symphonic fairy tale for children’ by Sergei Prokofiev. In recording this work, Alexander Armstrong joins a veritable hall of fame, including David Tennant, Phillip Schofield, Willie Rushton, Lenny Henry, David Attenborough, Dame Edna Everage, John Gielgud, Ben Kingsley, Patrick Stewart, Sting, Christopher Lee, Peter Ustinov, Paul Hogan, Dudley Moore, Terry Wogan, David Bowie, Richard Baker, Ralph Richardson, Richard Attenborough, Sean Connery, Michael Flanders, Alec Guinness, Basil Rathbone.

The Carnival of the Animals is a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements by Camille Saint-Saëns. In 1949, Ogden Nash wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany each movement for a Columbia Masterworks recording conducted by Andre Kostelanetz. They were recited on the original album by Noël Coward, dubbed over or spliced in between sections of the previously recorded music

In 1954 the English composer Alan Rawsthorne set six of the poems from T.S Elliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939) in a work for speaker and orchestra entitled Practical Cats, which was recorded by EMI soon afterwards with Robert Donat (The 39 Steps, Goodbye Mr Chips)

‘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.’
– Vasily Petrenko

‘It’s very exciting to be moving onto a narration project after having done quite a lot of narration in my role as an actor and as presenter. But also using my experience 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, it seems like a very logical thing for me to be doing.’
– Alexander Armstrong

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67
No. 1 The Story Begins
No. 2 The Bird
No. 3 The Duck – Dialogue with the Bird – Attack of the Cat
No. 4 Grandfather
No. 5 The Wolf
No. 6 The Duck Is Caught
No. 7 The Wolf Stalks the Bird and Cat
No. 8 Peter Prepares to Catch the Wolf
No. 9 The Bird Diverts the Wolf
No. 10 Peter Catches the Wolf
No. 11 The Hunters Arrive
No. 12 The Procession to the Zoo

Saint-Saëns: Le carnaval des animaux
Introduction poem
Introduction
Royal March of the Lion poem
I. Royal March of the Lion
Hens and Roosters poem
II. Hens and Roosters
Wild Asses poem
III. Wild Asses
Tortoises poem
IV. Tortoises
The Elephant poem
V. The Elephant
Kangaroos poem
VI. Kangaroos
Aquarium poem
VII. Aquarium
People with Long Ears poem
VIII. People with Long Ears
The Cuckoo in the Middle of the Woods poem
IX. The Cuckoo in the Middle of the Woods
Aviary poem
X. Aviary
Pianists poem
XI. Pianists
Fossils poem
XII. Fossils
The Swan poem
XIII. The Swan
Finale poem
XIV. Finale

Rawsthorne, A: Practical Cats
Overture
I. The Naming of Cats
II. The Old Gumbie Cat
III. Gus – The Theatre Cat
IV. Bustopher Jones – The Cat About Town
V. Old Deuteronomy
VI. The Song of the Jellicles