More Tunes Than You Can Shake A Stick At

This two disk budget set is another of my early classical purchases when I was trying to tick off boxes in the core repertoire. It's a sort of greatest hits of Prokofiev, titled Favourite Orchestral Suites, and although a bit disjointed the two disks hold together quite well since the full works are played. It delivers what it promises with the suites from the ballets The Love For Three Oranges and Romeo and Juliet, Symphony No 1 ( Classical ), Lieutenant Kije, the children's tale Peter and the Wolf, and Ala and Lolly ( The Scythian Suite ). The performers are variously the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra with Andre Previn and the Rotterdam Philharmonic conducted by Edo de Waart. The narrator for Peter and the Wolf is Alec McCowen. Most of these works are very familiar and highlight Prokofiev's gift for memorable themes and orchestrations. Romeo and Juliet has the Montagues and Capulets theme, beloved of soccer and grid iron teams wanting to project a swaggering macho image, while Lieutenant Kije has the Troika which, thanks to tv advertisers and Greg Lake, has become associated with Christmas. Peter and the Wolf is a well loved tale used to introduce children to the various instruments in the orchestra, maybe Alec McCowen's actorly style of narration is a little dated these days. I also know from a teacher aquaintance that with very young children there is the sensitive problem of the fate of the duck ! The least familiar work is probably the Scythian Suite with Prokofiev reaching back to his Russian roots and influences from Rimsky-Korsakov and particularly Borodin.