Peter and the Wolf

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.
Background.
In 1936, 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 Soviet Union at the time.) However, Prokofiev was dissatisfied with the rhyming text produced by (real name Antonia Pavlovna Sokolovskaya, 1896–1951), 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. 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.
Plot.
Peter, a Young Soviet 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 and another bird argue on whether a proper bird should be able to swim or fly. 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.
Before long, Peter's grandfather scolds him for being outside and playing in the meadow alone because a wolf might come out of the forest and attack him. When Peter shows defiance, believing he has nothing to fear from wolves, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Soon afterwards a ferocious wolf does indeed come out of the forest. The cat quickly climbs into the tree with the bird, but the duck, who has jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken, and swallowed by the wolf.
Seeing all of this from inside, 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 him, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by his 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 with their guns readied, but Peter gets them to instead 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 lastly his grumbling Grandfather still disappointed that Peter ignored his warnings.
At the end, the narrator states those listening carefully could hear the duck still quacking inside the wolf's belly, due to being swallowed alive.
Performance directions.
Prokofiev produced detailed performance notes in both English and Russian for "Peter and the Wolf". According to the English version:
Instrumentation.
"Peter and the Wolf" is scored for the following orchestra:
Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme:
A performance lasts about 25 minutes.
Recordings.
According to an article by Jeremy Nicholas for the classical music magazine "Gramophone" in 2015, the best overall recording of "Peter and the Wolf" is by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, narrated by Richard Baker and conducted by Raymond Leppard in 1971. "Gramophone"s best DVD version is the 2006 film by Suzie Templeton; its music is performed, without narrator, by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mark Stephenson.
Adaptations of the work.
Walt Disney, 1946.
Prokofiev, while touring the West in 1938, visited Los Angeles and met Walt Disney. Prokofiev performed the piano version of "Peter and the Wolf" for ""le papa de" Mickey Mouse", as Prokofiev described him in a letter to his sons. Disney was impressed, and considered adding an animated version of "Peter and the Wolf" to "Fantasia", which was to be released in 1940. Due to World War II, these plans fell through, and it was not until 1946 that Disney released his adaptation of "Peter and the Wolf" narrated by Sterling Holloway. It is not known if Prokofiev, by that point behind the Iron Curtain, was aware of this. It was released theatrically as a segment of "Make Mine Music", then reissued the next year, accompanying a reissue of "Fantasia" (as a short subject before the film), then separately on home video in the 1990s.
This version makes several changes to the original story. For example:
In 1957, for one of his television programs, Disney recalled how Prokofiev himself visited the Disney studio, eventually inspiring the making of this animated version. Disney used pianist Ingolf Dahl, who resembled Prokofiev, to re-create how the composer sat at a piano and played the themes from the score.
British–Polish co-production, 2006.
In 2006, Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman directed and produced respectively, a stop-motion animated adaptation, "Peter & the Wolf". It is unusual in its lack of any dialogue or narration, the story being told only in images and sound and interrupted by sustained periods of silence. The soundtrack is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the film received its premiere with a live accompaniment in the Royal Albert Hall. The film won the Annecy Cristal and the Audience Award at the 2007 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. This version makes some changes to the original Prokofiev story; for example:
In copyright law.
In 2012, the US Supreme Court's decision in "Golan v. Holder" restored copyright protection in the United States to numerous foreign works that had entered the public domain. "Peter and the Wolf" was frequently cited by the parties and amici, as well as by the Court's opinion and by the press, as an example of a well-known work that would be removed from the public domain by the decision.
References.
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