# Favorite Peter and the Wolf Narrator



## TinyTim

_Peter and the Wolf_ (Sergey Prokofiev) was one of the first pieces of classical music that I heard as a child. It has stuck with me indelibly all these years (I'm now 64 years old). Of all the narrators that you have heard perform this piece, who is your favorite?

Although I have heard only a fraction of the many narrators that have done this work, my favorite remains the one I heard first, the inimitable Sterling Holloway.


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## Il_Penseroso

Sir Ralph Richardson for me... and yes, like you it was the first one I heard, except the beautiful Disney cartoon adaptation


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## ptr

Dame Edna of cource! ... On a serious side, I grew up with a Swedish version narrated by actor Ernst-Hugo Järegård, then we had versions with Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff and most of all Peter Ustinov who was an all time favourite!

/ptr


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## elgar's ghost

Amazingly, this is one warhorse work that I actually don't have on disc despite hearing it many times over the years. I'm interested in acquiring the Helios recording by Ronald Corp as it has Prokofiev's son and grandson doing the narration. I've never heard them talk, but if they have Russian-accented English then perhaps it might give the work some added pungency.


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## quack

My favourite is a bootleg of Nikolai Litvinov. As I don't really speak Russian I can just focus on the music and not get distracted by some hammy actor, most of the narrators i've heard make me cringe. The version I heard when I was young was the Sean Connery, I only found this out today by searching for covers. I think i'll have to relisten to that, see if it is annoying too or if it will be a nostalgia trip.


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## moody

I remember that Beatrice Lillie did it with the London Symphony cond>Skitch Henderson,
Quack is right about the cringe making performances.


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## elgar's ghost

I never understood why showbiz people are given first refusal for works like this - it just seems like a device to shift units as the celebrity's fizzog is often festooned over the sleeve or his/her name specially highlighted (why else would DG have roped in bloody Sting?). Having said that, I did like Katherine Hepburn's Lincoln Portrait...


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## techniquest

Johnny Morris (of 'Animal Magic' fame); by far the best I ever heard.


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## Andreas

I have the version by Karajan, the Philharmonia and the incomparable Romy Schneider. Her youthful enthusiasm makes her seem like a big sister, telling the fairy tale to her younger siblings.


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## Jeff W

I've always liked Boris Karloff's version most of all.


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## realdealblues

A couple of these I'd like to hear. I've only got David Bowie, Sean Connery & Leonard Bernstein off the top of my head.


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## JACE

My fave is Alec Guinness.

No one did it better than Obi-Wan! 

BTW: The narration never made me cringe. I loved playing this music for my kids when they were little, and they dug it too. If fact, I still associate "Peter and the Wolf" with the "Rabbit Ears" series of stories, which were narrated by top-shelf actors paired with excellent musicians. I still occasionally pull one out and give it a listen. I especially like Ben Kingsley's reading of "The Tiger and the Brahmin" with music by Ravi Shankar.


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## PetrB

Jeff W said:


> View attachment 49672
> 
> 
> I've always liked Boris Karloff's version most of all.


Ditto ~ along with a recording, voice only, of Karloff reading Kipling's _Jungle Book_ stories.


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## Pip

Andreas said:


> I have the version by Karajan, the Philharmonia and the incomparable Romy Schneider. Her youthful enthusiasm makes her seem like a big sister, telling the fairy tale to her younger siblings.


Hi Andreas - this recording was issued for us in Britain and the USA with Peter Ustinov as the narrator. 
As he was multi-lingual, it's curious that they did not use him for the german version and others as well.
Another wonderful version is with Fritz Reiner conducting and Lauritz Melchior narrating for a 1949 radio broadcast.
(freely available on YouTube)


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## Andreas

Pip said:


> Hi Andreas - this recording was issued for us in Britain and the USA with Peter Ustinov as the narrator.
> As he was multi-lingual, it's curious that they did not use him for the german version and others as well.
> Another wonderful version is with Fritz Reiner conducting and Lauritz Melchior narrating for a 1949 radio broadcast.
> (freely available on YouTube)


Really? That's interesting, I didn't know that. Well, I guess they went with Schneider instead of Ustinov because she was extremely popular in Germany at the time.


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## Jos

For the Dutch listeners I'd recommend Edwin Rutten.

Cheers,
Jos


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