Music I'm Listening to: Peter and the Wolf

I've been enjoying looking at some of the records in my LP collection. The 12 x 12-inch space of a record jacket offers so much more from a design perspective than does a CD booklet. It's a pleasure to see the records again.

I got Peter and the Wolf out because I thought my son, a budding clarinetist, might like to hear the cat theme, which was always my favorite when listening to this record as a child. And I mean this record. This is the copy my parents got for my brother and me, probably around 1965. It's still in good shape. I loved the drawings on the cover then, and I still do. 

My son listened to it this time and enjoyed it. Last time I played it for him (the only time, a year or two ago) he wasn't receptive. We didn't even get to the end of the first side before he lost interest. I was right in thinking that his playing the clarinet now might make a difference. After listening, he quickly figured out the cat theme on his instrument. He's been playing the cat around the house ever since. 

The performance on this disc is narrated by Peter Ustinov, and it's still the best I've ever heard (Angel 35638; it appears to be a European release. My father may have picked it up in London. He worked for BOAC (British Airways) at the time--and, coincidentally, at Angel Records before that). It was a pleasure to hear it again after all these years, and now my son, the cat-clarinet, repeatedly reminds me of a long-forgotten childhood pleasure.