[.ca] Peter..Wolf (P Stewart)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Little could Prokofiev have known, when he wrote Peter and the Wolf for a children's educational broadcast in 1936, that he was writing one of the evergreens of the classical repertoire. Others have picked up on the idea of presenting the orchestra by way of a story, but no one has done it with the wit and charm on offer here. What really makes the story work, of course, is a sympathetic narrator, and Patrick Stewart is certainly that. Taking time out from his extra-terrestrial duties, he proves a welcoming host; courteous but not patronising, and never selling short the moments of high drama in this very human tale. Kent Nagano gets sparkling playing from his Lyon forces, here and in the rarely heard coupling. Debussy never completed the orchestration of this ballet for children, but André Caplet second-guessed his teacher beyond reasonable doubt, and gave us a work of suprising subtlety. As with the Prokofiev, this is music for all ages at all times, and Nagano conveys its fragile beauty to the full. The perfect disc for those long December evenings. --Richard Whitehouse

Great expression, but poor mixing kills it:
Peter and the Wolf is my favorite piece of music from my childhood, and I was quite pleased when someone gave me this CD for by birthday this year. The musicianship and narration are quite good: expressive and emotive. Unfortunately, the volume range on the CD is quite wide, ranging from inaudible to bowel-quaking. In the mix, the orchestra is either at one extreme or the other, but the narration is almost always too quiet to make out against the music. In addition, I can hear several places in the piece where gain peaks have introduced distortion into the sound. The music and narration are very well done, but the recording job was botched big time. I would recommend you purchase a different copy of Peter and the Wolf.

Patrick Stewart is fanastic, but the sound quality.....:
Perhaps the two best reasons for recommending this CD are Patrick Stewart's sterling narration (What else would you expect from one of Britain's finest actors, who was highly regarded long before joining the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?) and the splendid playing of the Lyons Opera orchestra led ably by the young American conductor Kent Nagano. Unfortunately this is one of the worst CDs I've heard from Erato, since the sound quality is poorly mixed, resulting in your constant attention to variable sound levels throughout the recording. It's also a shame that there isn't any information on the Debussy ballet in the liner notes; a fine performance which occoupies the remainder of the CD. Maybe some day Warner Classics might remix this recording, producing a truly classic recording of "Peter and the Wolf".

Your hand will constantly be on the volume control:
Patrick Stewart has a beautiful voice that really brings the story to life. Unfortunately, the volume of his narration is so quiet that you constantly have to turn the volume way up in order to hear him. This is a problem because the recorded music is at least 20X louder than him. So every time the music starts up, you quickly have to turn the volume back down. Otherwise it becomes so loud that it hurts sometimes! My hand was constantly on the volume control while I listened to this cd. I would never recommend playing this cd while driving because of that constant need to adjust the volume; it could be dangerous! It would probably also be annoying to try to listen to it over headphones. If instead, you plan on listening to this at home on a stereo system, the widely fluctuating volume might be more tolerable. It's a wonderful narration, they just didn't equal out the sound very well.

A Classic:
"Peter and the Wolf" was one of my favorites as a child, and I wanted to buy a version for my 10 1/2 month old son. The record we had when I was a child featured Peter Ustinov as the narrator, but I couldn't find that version on CD. When I saw a version with Patrick Stewart as narrator, I figured I had a winner, and I'm not disappointed. Mr. Stewart delivered as expected, and the quality of the recording is top-notch. I only gave it four stars because I'm not overly thrilled with the rest of the CD, but that's not why I bought the disc. I'd definitely recommend this version.

Delightful performances...:
Perhaps I have the advantage of having a wonderful stereo system, but I do not experience the peaks and distortions that others claim on my CD of this wonderful recording. The only thing I noticed is that my volume had to be raised a bit more than usual, but there was no problem with that. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but this overall is a great piece to have. The first piece on this disc is Sergei Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf', a musical tale written for children. 'Peter and the Wolf' was written by Prokofiev, but is derivative of an older tale. This is really a way to introduce children to the orchestra (and was a way for Prokofiev to keep his compositions going at a time in Stalinist Russia when music was legally required to be simple and understandable). The main characters include a bird (flute), duck (oboe), cat (clarinet), Peter's grandfather (bassoon), the wolf (a trio of French horns), hunters (percussion mostly, the timpani and bass drum, but also involves woodwinds), and Peter himself (the strings sections of the orchestra). Patrick Stewart reads the narration of the story, read over the music and in gaps prepared by Prokofiev. The strains of Peter's theme and the other animals are familiar to children all over the world, and have been for generations, as this piece has been very popular, even serving as the inspiration for a Walt Disney production of the same theme, featuring Prokofiev's music. I must confess that it is a bit hard not to visualise Captain Picard narrating this piece; on the other hand, given the nature of the Star Trek character, this is very much in keeping as something Picard might do. The second piece on this recording is Claude Debussy's 'The Toy Box', a ballet for children. This is also a well-known piece, though perhaps not as well known at the first. It does not feature narration, and is meant largely to introduce the ballet to children. Debussy wrote several pieces for children or evocative of children, some under the inspiration of his daughter. This is not difficult music by any means, but the Ochrestre de L'Opera de Lyon under the direction of Kent Nagano have produced a superb musical performance of both pieces. This should be a delight to children and to adults.

• Peter And The Wolf: Musical March: 'Each character in this tale...' - PROKOFIEV/DEBUSSY
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Early One Morning, Peter Opened The Gate' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'On The Branch Of A Big Tree' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Just Then A Duck Came Waddling Around' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Suddenly Something Caught Peter's Attention' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Grandfather Came Out' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'No Sooner Had Peter Gone' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'And Now, This Is How Things Stood' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'In The Meantime' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Meanwhile Peter Made A Lasso' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'Just Then The Hunters Came Out Of The Woods' - Sergei Prokofiev
• Peter And The Wolf: 'And There, Imagine The Triumphant Procession' - Sergei Prokofiev
• La Boite Joujoux: The Toy Box: Prelude: The Sleeping Box - PROKOFIEV/DEBUSSY
• La Boite Joujoux: The Toy Box: 1st Tableau: The Toy Store - PROKOFIEV/DEBUSSY
• La Boite Joujoux: The Toy Box: 2nd Tableau: The Battlefield - PROKOFIEV/DEBUSSY
• La Boite Joujoux: The Toy Box: 3rd Tableau: The Sheepfold For Sale - PROKOFIEV/DEBUSSY