Help
Skip to main content

US TARIFFS UPDATE | August 2025 | No impact expected on your Presto orders | Read full details

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf

Alexander Armstrong (narrator), Richard Casey, Ian Buckle (piano duet)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
There’s a palpable smile in [Armstrong’s] sonorous baritone – and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s invigorating account makes up for any lack of excitement in the reading…The rarity...

Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf

Alexander Armstrong (narrator), Richard Casey, Ian Buckle (piano duet)

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko

Purchase product

96 kHz, 24 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$15.00

44.1 kHz, 16 bit, FLAC/ALAC/WAV

$13.00

320 kbps, MP3

$10.00

This release includes a digital booklet

Stream now Hi-RES 96 kHz, 24 bit
There’s a palpable smile in [Armstrong’s] sonorous baritone – and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s invigorating account makes up for any lack of excitement in the reading…The rarity...

About

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)

Contents and tracklist

No. 1 The Story Begins
Track length1:01
No. 2 The Bird
Track length1:42
No. 3 The Duck - Dialogue with the Bird - Attack of the Cat
Track length4:14
No. 4 Grandfather
Track length2:22
No. 5 The Wolf
Track length1:32
No. 6 The Duck Is Caught
Track length1:26
No. 7 The Wolf Stalks the Bird and Cat
Track length1:38
No. 8 Peter Prepares to Catch the Wolf
Track length1:12
No. 9 The Bird Diverts the Wolf
Track length1:29
No. 10 Peter Catches the Wolf
Track length1:50
No. 11 The Hunters Arrive
Track length2:10
No. 12 The Procession to the Zoo
Track length4:39
Introduction poem
Track length0:25
Introduction
Track length0:33
Royal March of the Lion poem
Track length0:22
I. Royal March of the Lion
Track length1:41
Hens and Roosters poem
Track length0:12
II. Hens and Roosters
Track length0:46
Wild Asses poem
Track length0:22
III. Wild Asses
Track length0:39
Tortoises poem
Track length0:22
IV. Tortoises
Track length2:43
The Elephant poem
Track length0:17
V. The Elephant
Track length1:24
Kangaroos poem
Track length0:13
VI. Kangaroos
Track length0:54
Aquarium poem
Track length0:19
VII. Aquarium
Track length2:39
People with Long Ears poem
Track length0:04
VIII. People with Long Ears
Track length0:34
The Cuckoo in the Middle of the Woods poem
Track length0:10
IX. The Cuckoo in the Middle of the Woods
Track length2:28
Aviary poem
Track length0:29
X. Aviary
Track length1:17
Pianists poem
Track length0:17
XI. Pianists
Track length1:12
Fossils poem
Track length0:35
XII. Fossils
Track length1:17
The Swan poem
Track length0:13
XIII. The Swan
Track length2:49
Finale poem
Track length0:29
XIV. Finale
Track length2:15
Overture
Track length2:08
I. The Naming of Cats
Track length3:37
II. The Old Gumbie Cat
Track length5:12
III. Gus - The Theatre Cat
Track length4:00
IV. Bustopher Jones - The Cat About Town
Track length3:11
V. Old Deuteronomy
Track length4:35
VI. The Song of the Jellicles
Track length1:30

Awards and reviews

Christmas 2017

There’s a palpable smile in [Armstrong’s] sonorous baritone – and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s invigorating account makes up for any lack of excitement in the reading…The rarity on this disc is Rawsthorne’s setting of TS Eliot’s Practical Cats…Armstrong’s skills as a singer-actor come into their own in this sprechgesang recitation.

8th October 2017

Armstrong provides the narration, drily delivering Ogden Nash’s Carnival text. He’s a restrained storyteller of Peter and the Wolf and rhythmically alert in Rawsthorne’s Façade-like TS Eliot setting.

22nd September 2017

Armstrong’s cut-glass Oxbridge tones are great for diction and comprehension, not quite so good at conjuring up the various characters, human and animal, in the story...Where Armstrong does triumph, however, is in narrating the accompanying works.
View download progress