David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf

David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
A photo of a man with a wolf behind him
Studio album by
Released2 May 1978 (1978-05-02)
Recorded
    • October 1975 (music)
    • December 1977 (narration)
VenueScottish Rite Temple, Philadelphia (music)
StudioRCA Studio B, New York City (narration)
Genre
Length44:18
LabelRCA Red Seal
ProducerJay David Saks
David Bowie chronology
"Heroes"
(1977)
David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
(1978)
Stage
(1978)
Alternative cover
A side close-up headshot of a man with wolf ears
1992 US CD release cover

David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf is a classical music album originally released by RCA Red Seal Records on 2 May 1978. Produced by Jay David Saks, the LP's first side contains a performance of Sergei Prokofiev's 1936 composition Peter and the Wolf by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, with narration by the English musician David Bowie. Bowie contributed to the project for his young son and recorded his narration in December 1977 in New York City. The LP's second side contains a recording of Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, also by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Upon release, the album reached number 136 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and was Grammy-nominated in 1979. The recording has received positive reviews from critics and writers, with Bowie's appearance garnering praise as "charming" and engaging. It has since been reissued with different artworks and additional recordings, including of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite and Camille Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals.

Overview

A black-and-white photograph of a man leaning on a chair
Composer Sergei Prokofiev (pictured c. 1918)

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed Peter and the Wolf in 1936 with the intention of introducing younger children to orchestral music. The composition tells the story of a boy named Peter who travels outside his grandfather's garden in hopes of finding a big bad wolf. Each animal, including a duck, a cat and a bird, is represented by a different musical instrument, with a clarinet representing the cat and a trio of French horns representing the wolf. The composition originally premiered in Moscow in 1936 to lukewarm reception and remained relatively obscure in the western world until Walt Disney adapted it into an animated short film in 1946. Since Prokofiev's death in 1953, Peter and the Wolf has been regarded as one of his greatest pieces.

The project was not the first of its type. Musician Leonard Cohen had previously narrated a version of Peter and the Wolf for Decca Records in 1960, while actor Sean Connery narrated another in 1971, backed by the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. There have reportedly been over 400 recordings of Peter and the Wolf. For their version, RCA Records initially wanted actors Alec Guinness and Peter Ustinov, but both turned the project down, leading the label to hire David Bowie. Bowie contributed to the project specifically for his son, Duncan Jones, then seven years old. Bowie's then-collaborator Brian Eno appeared on a 1975 recording narrated by Vivian Stanshall.

The music was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy, and recorded at the Scottish Rite Temple in Philadelphia on 8 October 1975, with production by Jay David Saks. The orchestra consisted of a flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, three horns, trumpet, trombone, timpani, drum, two violins, viola, cello and double bass. Bowie recorded his narration at RCA Studio B in New York City in December 1977, after completing promotional appearances for his album "Heroes". Ormandy was skeptical upon learning of Bowie's involvement. Saks, the project's manager, stated in 1983: "[Eugene] quite frankly didn't know who Bowie was, and when he found out he was a rock star he was a little concerned, to say the least." Bowie and Ormandy never met, but after hearing the final product, Ormandy enjoyed his performance.

Release history

A green vinyl LP record
The original 1978 US green pressing of the LP

David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf was released on 2 May 1978 on the RCA Red Seal label, with the catalogue number RL-12743/ARL1-2743. It appeared with a music-only recording of English composer Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra on Side B, recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra in late March 1974. Another musical drama, it uses symphonic orchestration to guide the story. Promotional material for the LP at the time used the tagline: "What happens when a world-famous maestro teams up with a pop-rock dynamo?"

The LP peaked at number 136 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart on 9 June and remained on the chart for eight weeks. At the 21st Annual Grammy Awards in 1979, Peter and the Wolf was nominated for Best Recording for Children, losing the award to The Muppet Show, the first soundtrack album to the television show of the same name.

The original 1978 US version of the LP was pressed on green vinyl and included liner notes written by Mary Campbell. The album has subsequently been made available on 8-track, CD and MP3. Later issues were pressed in standard black vinyl. A different album cover was used for the 1992 US CD release, depicting a wolf wearing a mask of Bowie's face. This release also included an additional recording of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite (1892), again performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Ormandy, and produced by Max Wilcox. The album has been reissued a number of times on CD with varying extra tracks and three album covers. A 2004 reissue replaced the Tchaikovsky piece with a recording of Camille Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals (1922). The most recent reissue was released in 2014 by Sony Classical.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic

David Bowie Narrates Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf has received positive reviews from music critics, with many praising Bowie's appearance as "charming". Reviewing at the time of its release, Rolling Stone's Stephen Demorest found Bowie's involvement "engaging and benevolent", finishing by saying Bowie had "found his most charming guise since Hunky Dory." Jon Savage of Sounds magazine praised the album, writing: "This is a perfect record if you have a young child and wish to give him/her an introduction into classical music, or if you're a 'child of all ages'." He further called Bowie's involvement "curious". One reviewer, who called the project "surprisingly refreshing", declared:

All in all, Peter and the Wolf has something for everyone. For David Bowie fans, it is another successful demonstration of his openness to new directions. For lovers of the symphony, it is a selection of light-hearted compositions played by one of the world's foremost orchestras. And for children, it opens the door to a fantasy world of captivating music.

Joe Viglione in AllMusic praised Bowie's performance as "splendid", describing the Philadelphia Orchestra's involvement as "first-rate". He finished by saying it was "a remarkable and well-crafted project". Paul Howlett of The Guardian described Bowie's narration as engaging and beautiful, concluding that the project "sits quite neatly" in Bowie's discography. Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer praised Bowie's used of different voices for the characters, saying: "Even in 1978 and even in a children's recording, Bowie was imploring his listeners to think differently about the power of ambiguity."

Bowie's biographers have also given the project positive assessments. Nicholas Pegg states: "While not to be compared with John Gielgud's definitive recording, Bowie's narration has genuine charm. This is an accomplished piece of work and a fascinating curio from a period in which his other unlikely collaborations embraced figures as diverse as Marc Bolan, Bing Crosby and Marlene Dietrich." Thomas Jerome Seabrook agrees, writing: "While projects such as this are easy to mock, only the most hard-hearted of listeners could deny that both Bowie, with his wide-eyed, enthusiastic delivery, and the Philadelphia Orchestra made a fine job of it." Chris O'Leary said his performance as the cat is his finest on the record, but found his voice to be too low in the mix.

Track listing

Track lengths were not listed on the original 1978 LP. The below lengths are from the 1992 US release.

Side one

  1. Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67 (Sergei Prokofiev) – 27:08

Side two

  1. Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34 (Benjamin Britten) – 17:09

1992 US release

  1. The Nutcracker Suite (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky) – 23:57

Personnel

According to Chris O'Leary:

Production

Charts

Chart performance for Peter and the Wolf
Chart (1978) Peak
position
US Billboard Top LPs & Tape 136

This page was last updated at 2023-11-18 14:56 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari