BaL 10.06.23 - Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf

[Petrushka]

Does that not rather defeat Prokofiev's purpose when it comes to young listeners who do not understand Russian? I think that if narration is sought, the native language of the listeners is what is to be preferred, here.

Yes indeed but I was looking at it from a different perspective.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Some of the listed performances occur more than once, with different narrators speaking in different languages.

I have Richard Baker's CFP recording, played repeatedly by my children in past decades. He tells the story so well. Sir John Gielgud, on the other hand, is a disappointment, with rather a rushed delivery ~ and being normally a master of English pronunciation, he tells us that the cat is represented by the "clarionet".

[Goon525]

Hermione Gingold, Karl Bohm and the Vienna Phil.

Yes, this unlikely sounding version was actually rather good.

[smittims]

The first time I heard Peter and the Wolf the narrator said 'clarionet'. I believe it was in the old English translation used at first.

[smittims]

The narrator on the Efrem Kurtz recording was Michael Flanders. Kurtz had an on-off career on HMV, mostly Russian music, including a fine Shostakovitch 10th, possibly the first recording of a Shostakovitch suymphony by a British orchestra. There's also a famous recording of the Bruch G minor concerto with Yehudi Menuhin, which stayed in the catalogue for many years.

[MickyD]

I'm intrigued to hear the Dame Edna recording!

[makropulos]

The narrator on the Efrem Kurtz recording was Michael Flanders. Kurtz had an on-off career on HMV, mostly Russian music, including a fine Shostakovitch 10th, possibly the first recording of a Shostakovitch suymphony by a British orchestra. There's also a famous recording of the Bruch G minor concerto with Yehudi Menuhin, which stayed in the catalogue for many years.

I never understood what happened with Efrem Kurtz's career, particularly as his records of Russian music (especially Rimsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich) still sound so good even now. However, I was lucky enough to see him conducting a couple of Hallé concerts in the mid-1970s. In the first one he substituted for Boult and left the programme unchanged, meaning that we were treated to Efrem Kurtz doing John Ireland's London Overture (rather well), and a very exciting Schubert 9 in the second half. To get back on topic, I must say I like his Peter and the Wolf (and I think Michael Flanders is one of the better narrators). As an aside, observant collectors who had the original LP will no doubt remember that the sleeve notes were by the wonderfully aptly-named Leonard Duck (music librarian at the Henry Watson Library in Manchester for many years).

[Pulcinella]

The first time I heard Peter and the Wolf the narrator said 'clarionet'. I believe it was in the old English translation used at first.

There's no indication in the (Dover edition) score I have that the Introduction/description of what instrument represents what is part of the 'music'. It's just given in English under the list of instruments, whereas the score itself has both Russian and English, the first spoken words being 'Early one morning, Peter opened the gate and went out into the big green meadow.'

It does however say:
Each character of this tale is depicted by its own instrument in the orchestra: the bird by......., the cat by a clarinet [sic] playing staccato in a low register, ...
Before the orchestra performance, it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play the leimotivs on them. In this way the children, during the performance, will easily learn to distinguish the sonorities of these orchestral instruments.

No idea if this is what Prokofiev wrote, or something Dover added.

Interestingly, in the score all the instruments are written in C, i.e., as they sound.

[makropulos]

There's no indication in the (Dover edition) score I have that the Introduction/description of what instrument represents what is part of the 'music'. It's just given in English under the list of instruments, whereas the score itself has both Russian and English, the first spoken words being 'Early one morning, Peter opened the gate and went out into the big green meadow.'

It does however say:
Each character of this tale is depicted by its own instrument in the orchestra: the bird by......., the cat by a clarinet [sic] playing staccato in a low register, ...
Before the orchestra performance, it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play the leimotivs on them. In this way the children, during the performance, will easily learn to distinguish the sonorities of these orchestral instruments.

No idea if this is what Prokofiev wrote, or something Dover added.

Interestingly, in the score all the instruments are written in C, i.e., as they sound.

I think Prokofiev usually notated his scores in C (I've just checked my scores of the 5th and 7th symphonies and both are notated in C).
As for the introduction, it is (very) slightly different in the 1942 Boosey & Hawkes full score (the first edition to have it in English), but more or less the same. Apparently the English version of Prokofiev's narration was made by Thomas F. Dunhill, though he's not credited on this edition. The 1942 score also has a Spanish text (which was also reprinted in the Hawkes Pocket Score). If you want to have a look at this, it's on imslp, and so, too, is the 1940 Russian original, with the narration in Russian).

[Pulcinella]

I think Prokofiev usually notated his scores in C (I've just checked my scores of the 5th and 7th symphonies and both are notated in C).
As for the introduction, it is (very) slightly different in the 1942 Boosey & Hawkes full score (the first edition to have it in English), but more or less the same. Apparently the English version of Prokofiev's narration was made by Thomas F. Dunhill, though he's not credited on this edition. The 1942 score also has a Spanish text (which was also reprinted in the Hawkes Pocket Score). If you want to have a look at this, it's on imslp, and so, too, is the 1940 Russian original, with the narration in Russian).

Thanks for this.
There was a discussion on another thread not that long ago about C notation, and I don't think that Prokofiev's name cropped up.

[richardfinegold]

The narrator on the Efrem Kurtz recording was Michael Flanders. Kurtz had an on-off career on HMV, mostly Russian music, including a fine Shostakovitch 10th, possibly the first recording of a Shostakovitch suymphony by a British orchestra. There's also a famous recording of the Bruch G minor concerto with Yehudi Menuhin, which stayed in the catalogue for many years.

Thank you and Makropolous for filling in that information about Kurtz and Flanders. I wish that I still had the lp

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The first time I heard Peter and the Wolf the narrator said 'clarionet'. I believe it was in the old English translation used at first.

The instrument was called the clarinet/clarinette even earlier than “clarionet”, which means a very small trumpet (so its usage was probably the result of an error).

[smittims]

Thanks for that. I see the OED gives examples of both spellings from the 18th and 19th centuries. I only heard 'clarionet' until the 1960s (I must have had a very sheltered upbringing!).

[Bryn]

Thanks for that. I see the OED gives examples of both spellings from the 18th and 19th centuries. I only heard 'clarionet' until the 1960s (I must have had a very sheltered upbringing!).

Let's not forget the Homeric saxamaphone.

[Master Jacques]

Are all these recordings with narration in English? I ask this because several of the narrators are not native English speakers and it is unlikely that any British buyer would want narration in any other language regardlesws of the quality of the narration or the orchestral playing.Qu

As quite a lot of English speakers (not least on this forum) prefer their music theatre to be "original language", it would seem illogical for these leopards to change their spots for Pétya i volk.

If you want a wonderful version of Peter and the Wolf which is narrated in English which sounds like Russian, I recommend Oda Slobodskaya's hugely characterful 1964 recording conducted by Isaie Disenhaus, with L'Orchestre De L'Association Des Concerts Colonne. Possibly the most entertaining of the lot, though not listed in Eine Alpensinfonie's admirably comprehensive list.

And before I get corrected, I know Oda S. was born in Lithuania (though she'd have hated to be thought of as anything other than Russian); but she was British for more than half her life, having taken out citizenship in 1934, three years after her marriage in Bangor to an ex-army officer.