The novelty of this version of Peter and the Wolf is the narrator: Lina Prokofiev, the composer's wife, whom he abandoned in 1948. Lina Prokofiev had a thoroughly cosmopolitan upbringing, and she had a precocious knack for languages, so it would be impossible to tell from this recording that she was not a native English speaker. She was in her late eighties when she made this recording, and she sounds warmly grandmotherly. The performance by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by
Neeme Järvi is overly careful and scrupulous. The exquisitely controlled precision
Järvi brings to the score feels out of place in a piece whose subject is a folk-like tale about the adventures of a rambunctious boy. If
Järvi could have brought some loose-limbed spontaneity and a sense of fun to the piece, while maintaining the high standards of the playing, this would have been a far more persuasive performance. His ear for detail and nuance is perfectly suited to the romantic score of Cinderella, and when he brings it to the stellar Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the result is a luminous performance of music from the ballet. The recording also includes several of Prokofiev's less frequently played works, Pushkiniana, which consists of two waltzes; three dances from his incidental music for Eugene Onegin; and a scene from his incidental music for Boris Godunov. While this ephemera may not be Prokofiev at his most profound, these pieces are a reminder that he was unsurpassed among twentieth century composers at writing memorable traditional dance forms, particularly waltzes. Chandos' sound captures the details of the performances with clarity and warmth.