CSOradio
CSOradio
Peter and the Wolf has attracted all manner of celebrity narrators over the years: rockers David Bowie, Alice Cooper (!!) and Sting; actors John Gielgud, Boris Karloff and Ralph Richardson, and wild cards such as Dame Edna Everage, Weird Al Yankovic and Sean Connery (who did not use the occasion to utter, “Wolf. Peter Wolf.”).
With Peter and the Wolf to be performed at CSO Family Matinees on Feb. 19, here are among the best recordings of the children's classic.
Basil Rathbone, All-American Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski: The greatest Sherlock Holmes of all time recorded many spoken word and theater/music discs over his long career, from Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” to Disney’s “The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad” to the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Released in 1941 by Columbia Masterworks, this 78-rpm, three-disc set became a benchmark. As one commentator noted on the Internet Archive (where the recording is available), “There is none to equal Basil Rathbone. This has always been, and will always be, my standard for Peter and the Wolf.”
Sterling Holloway, Disney Studio Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Graunke: The first animated version of Prokofiev’s work was spawned when the composer visited the offices of studio chief Walt Disney and performed Peter and the Wolf on a piano for him (as Walt claimed during his “Disneyland” TV series a decade later). Intended for “Fantasia” (1941), the short ended up as an episode of the Disney compilation “Make Mine Music” (1946), with narration by Sterling Holloway, the velvety-voiced actor who would go on to become the definitive Winnie-the-Pooh. The short is available on Spotify and the Internet Archive.
David Bowie, the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy: Between his Thin White Duke incarnation and his Berlin trilogy, the British-born rock icon narrated this project, supposedly as a present for his 7-year-old son, Zowie (who grew up to become the filmmaker Duncan Jones). The result charmed the originally skeptical Ormandy and received a Grammy nomination for best children's recording, but lost to the Muppets (sob). Released in May 1978 on RCA Red Seal, the disc has been reissued many times, most recently in 2020 by Sony Classical.
Sting, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Claudio Abbado: If you love somebody, set them free to narrate Peter the Wolf. Gramophone magazine calls this version (released in 1990 by Deutsche Grammophon), “arguably the best over-all account of the score on disc. Sting’s involvement is infectious. ...One really gets the sense of a dad performing for his kids.”
Patrick Stewart, the Lyon Opéra Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano: Set phasers to stunning! The actor perhaps best known as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” various “Star Trek” movies and now “Star Trek: Picard” unleashes his signature plummy tones to maximum effect. The disc, recorded by Erato in 1994, won a Grammy for best spoken word album for children.
