My first Desert Island Disc choice for #Octaver16 #OctaverDiD

Prokofiev - Peter And The Wolf (Theme) - Philharmonic Symphony of London, Charles Gerhardt

In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats and the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow to write a new musical symphony for children. The intent was to cultivate "musical tastes in children from the first years of school". Intrigued by the invitation, Prokofiev completed Peter and the Wolf in just four days. The debut on 2 May 1936 was, in the composer's words, inauspicious at best: "... [attendance] was poor and failed to attract much attention".

The first concert performance of the work outside Russia was by the Dublin Orchestral Players under the direction of Brian Boydell on 9 June 1942 in Dublin, Ireland