#LMF24 / 2. Peter and the Wolf

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 -  1953)

“Peter and the Wolf” (1936), a symphonic tale op. 67

Arrangement for Chamber Ensemble by Marco Pontini

Francesco Bolo Rossini, actor

I Solisti dell’ Orchestra da Camera di Perugia:

Azusa Onishi, violin

Claudia Bucchini, flute

Simone Frondini, oboe

Francesco Zarba, clarinet

Luca Franceschelli, bassoon

Stefano Olevano, horn

Leonardo Ramadori, timpani

For the past three years, after nearly two decades spent in the West, the musician had made the decision to return with his family to his homeland, lured by the promise of prestigious commissions and recognition and no longer - to put it bluntly - as an "ambassador" of Soviet art abroad, but as an animator of music for the "people" of his native country.

These were the years when Prokofiev found himself - unintentionally - poised between two antithetical paths: on the one hand, post-romantic works such as the magnificent ballet Romeo and Juliet (begun in 1935) and the Second Violin Concerto; on the other, monumental and openly "propagandistic" works such as the Cantata (1937) to celebrate the anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917 - never performed while the musician was alive - and the Ode Zdravitsa ("Cheers! ", 1939) for Stalin's 60th birthday.

Because of its good fortune, the Soviet "manifesto" paid much attention to music aimed at children, and tonight's celebrated "symphonic fable" Peter and the Wolf Op. 67-a Conte symphonique pour enfants, A Musical Tale in the original edition-came at a particularly opportune time.

The commission came in 1936 from Moscow's Central Children's Theater directed by the energetic Natalya Sats, and the work met with resounding immediate success, which spared the musician further "ideological" shenanigans for several years.

The plot of the fable (well known to all) makes use of a narrative voice that introduces the various characters represented by the different instruments of the orchestra: Peter from the violin; the bird from the flute; the duck from the oboe; the cat from the clarinet; the grandfather from the bassoon; the wolf from the horn; the hunters from the entire woodwind family; and the firing of the guns from the percussion. The mystery of Peter and the Wolf lies precisely in Prokofiev's magical descriptive use of musical instruments.

Reduced Tickets  for UniCoop Florence members, children and young people aged 18 to 30, residents of the municipality of Lucignano

Free entrance  for young children up to 17 years old, disabled people and their companion (reservation required).

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