Young Peter is playing outside his garden, warning the bird and the duck that his cat is stalking them. Peter ignores his grandfather’s warnings that it isn’t safe outside: ‘What if a wolf comes out of the forest?’ 

Prokofiev wrote the music and the narration for Peter and the Wolf in 1936 for the Moscow Children’s Theatre. The first concert performance was given by the Moscow Philharmonic on 2 May, with the Children’s Theatre premiere three days later. This charming entertainment was conceived not just for its theatrical storytelling, but also as an introduction to the sounds of the orchestra, and it has become familiar to so many generations round the world through hearing it first at school for just this reason. Prokofiev writes different themes for the characters and has  made them  the more captivating through their instrumental characterizations: bird (flute), duck (oboe), cat (clarinet), wolf (horns), grandfather (bassoon) and – triumphantly – Peter with a whole melodious string section.