Prokofiev: Peter & the Wolf

There are many, many recordings of this children's classic by different narrators and more than a few of them are very good to excellent. This is my emotional favorite. I say emotional, because there are other recordings with better sound and a crisper tempo. Personal preference as to narrator also plays into it. For me, however, there is no more thrilling, enjoyable recording than this one.

Boris Karloff expertly narrates this classic tale, with emotion and verve. This is one of two versions I grew up on as a child, the other narrated by the superb Basil Rathbone, also excellent. (I have that one as well) The Karloff recording is my reference standard, though, perhaps because of my childhood remembrance. The hair on the back of my neck still stands on end as the sinister horns describe the menacing wolf.

As it was for me, this is a delightful introduction to classical music for children. The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote this piece to tell...Read more

Glad to see that this is back in print. As a little boy, I had the record (unfortunately misplaced) and played it until the grooves were worn. Boris Karloff's narration and the Vienna Orchestra sound spectacular on this CD, though. Hopefully my five year old will love this album as much as I did.

I love Boris Karloff, the voice is delicious, but his reading is rather uninspired, unimaginative and cautious-sounding, but not nearly so pedestrian as the conducting of Mario Rossi, who has at his disposal the highly capable Vienna State Opera orchestra (read, Vienna Philharmonic) who could play the pants off this piece even if left to their own devices, and not held back by the willful torpor of their baton-waiver. But alas, the performance simply drags along tediously, if such a thing is possible with this most delightful of musical stories. The Kije is merely a serviceable performance, too, of something that should effervesce. I regret not being more positive; the voice of Karloff should have been coupled with a more vital conductor. The recorded sound (from 1957) as typical of Seymour Solomon's audiophile work for Vanguard and other labels is superlative analog.