In 1936 Prokofiev was asked by Natalya Sats, Director of the Moscow Children’s Theatre, to write a piece that would introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra. The Prokofiev scholar Simon Morrison describes the creative process in detail: a poetic text was rejected by the composer who devised his own, in consultation with Sats, calling it How Pioneer Peter Caught the Wolf – a tale of a brave Soviet boy scout defying the orders of his grandfather to rescue the bird from the cat, and to see the wolf brought to justice.  

He wrote the music very quickly, in less than a week, and tried it out on the piano with a group of schoolchildren, who were delighted – as they were by the full instrumental version when it was subsequently performed at the Moscow Children’s Theatre. However, the official premiere for adults on 2 May 1936 was, according to Morrison, ‘lacklustre’. Prokofiev’s detailed instructions, written while he was working on the piece, explain what he set out to achieve:  

Each character of this tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the timpani and bass drum. Before an orchestral performance it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play on them the corresponding leitmotivs. Thereby, the children learn to distinguish the sonorities of the instruments during the performance of this tale. 

And so they have ever since. Peter soon reached a vast international audience thanks to the private performance Prokofiev gave to Walt Disney in 1938. This chamber version was written by David Matthews in 1936. 

© Nigel Simeone 2015