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Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Alexander Armstrong (narrator), Richard Casey, Ian Buckle (piano duet)
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko
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
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
- Alexander Armstrong (narrator)
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
- Vasily Petrenko
- Alexander Armstrong (narrator)
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
- Vasily Petrenko
- Alexander Armstrong (narrator)
- Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
- Vasily Petrenko
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.