When I was growing up one of the ways I was introduced to classical music was through the story and music of Peter and the Wolf. I don’t remember who narrated the version I first heard, but I’m looking forward to hearing Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress Viola Davis serve as narrator when she joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl.
Written in 1936, Peter and the Wolf introduces the concept of instruments and themes through composer Sergei Prokofiev’s clever writing. Each of the main characters has a theme that is well defined by the narrator and subsequently played by the orchestra during the course of approximately 25 minutes.
You’ll certainly recognize Peter’s theme as it is one of the most popular and enduring pieces of classical music in the repertoire. Let’s not forget that Walt Disney made a short film of this story ten years after its debut.
Reading the narration for Peter and the Wolf has seemed like a rite of passage for many of our biggest stars (and some politicians, too.) Leonard Bernstein, David Bowie, Carol Channing, Bill Clinton, Alice Cooper, Sean Connery, Mikhail Gorbachev, Alec Guinness, Captain Kangaroo, Eleanor Roosevelt, Patrick Stewart, Sting, David Tennant and Peter Ustinov are just some of those who have performed and/or recorded this work.
Enter Davis. She has won two Tony Awards for her performances in King Hedley II and in Fences. She won her Academy Award when she reprised her role in Fences for the 2016 film version. She’s also the recipient of an Emmy Award for her role as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder.
Also on this program, the first official classical music performance of the 2021 season at the Hollywood Bowl, will be Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1. It was composed from 1916-1917 and contains four movements. At a brief 16 minutes (or so), the work has obvious Mozartian influences, but Prokofiev’s own identity is clearly on display.
Closing out the first half of the program is a performance of selections from Montgomery Variations composed by Margaret Bonds. She composed Montgomery Variations as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Montgomery to Selma marches. Bonds, however, never heard the work performed. The manuscript was discovered after her death in 1972 amongst her archived materials at the Georgetown University Library.
Gustavo Dudamel will be leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic for this concert. Ticket can be purchased here.
