World Premiere: May 2, 1936
Last HSO Performance: April 1, 2005
Instrumentation: Narrator, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 3 horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, percussion and strings
Duration: 25 minutes

Sergei Prokofiev
(Born April 23, 1891 in Sontzovka, Russia
Died March 5, 1953 in Moscow)

Peter and the Wolf, Symphonic Tale for Children for Narrator and Orchestra, 
Op. 67 (1936)

When Prokofiev returned for good to his native Russia in 1936 from his years in the West, he quickly espoused the Soviet philosophy of promoting music that would appeal to the widest masses of the people. “It is the duty of the composer to serve his fellow men, to beautify human life and point the way to a radiant future,” he maintained. Following his early works, which had established his reputation as a mogul of modernity, was a steady stream of superb scores more conservative in temper and accessible in idiom — Lt. Kijé, Alexander Nevsky, Fifth Symphony, Romeo and Juliet and Second Violin Concerto. Prokofiev’s music for children — Twelve Piano Pieces for Children (transcribed for orchestra in 1941 as Summer’s Day Suite), Three Songs for Children, Winter Bonfire and Peter and the Wolf — sprang from his sincere concern that his music should be of practical use to his countrymen.

The suggestion to create Peter and the Wolf came to Prokofiev from Natalie Satz, director of the Moscow Children’s Theater. The Theater produced operas, concerts and ballets for and with children, and Prokofiev was familiar with its work through taking his sons there on several occasions. Soon after the Theater moved into a new home in March 1936, Satz asked Prokofiev to write a piece demonstrating the orchestral instruments by associating them with images. “How about the flute as a little bird?” she suggested. “Absolutely,” Prokofiev agreed. “Perhaps a number of animals and birds, and at least one person,” Satz urged. Prokofiev’s imagination was stirred. He devised his own tale about a boy and a wolf and completed the music for it in just two weeks. Peter and the Wolf was an immediate success.

A few days after the premiere, Sergei Prokofiev, the famed “children’s composer,” was approached by Anastas Mikoyan, Soviet Commissar of Supplies, with an interesting proposal. Would he participate in a program to popularize children’s songs, poems and fairy tales by writing a little tune that would be printed on attractive wrappings of chocolates, toys and sweets? Prokofiev at first hesitated, but agreed as soon as he learned that his new song would be used for the wrapper of the chocolates that were his childhood favorite.