In a packed Mayflower Bookshop, expert on Slavic literature and communications consultant Louis Smit treated us to a special talk on the musical fairy tale ‘Peter and the wolf’ by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). The lecture was part of the Mayflower series ‘Children’s classics’.
Sketching the context of the life and times of Prokofiev, Smit gave us a clear picture of the musical context in which he composed, and of his rise and downfall during the Stalin regime. Also, the significance of the wolf as an animal with dangerous associations in both fiction and fact was not forgotten.
Peter and the Wolf was by far not the only famous piece of music Prokofiev composed, as we heard in a familiar piece of music from the opera Romeo and Juliet, but probably the most famous.
As Smit told us, this famous piece of music was for children all over the world their first acquaintance with musical instruments and with the capacity of music to tell a story.
The fact that this story still has the power to mesmerize children young and old was illustrated by the fact that you could hear a pin drop, when the complete piece of music was played.
A classic well worth listening to today!