Jack Lancaster and Robin Lumley

‘Peter and the Wolf’ was written by Prokofiev as an introduction to the orchestra for kiddywinks, using recognizable musical themes to identify the characters in the story of ‘Peter And The Wolf’, and as such was massively successful.
When Lancaster & Lumley created a rock version in 1975 it was revolutionary, very much in the style of the many different ‘projects’ of the time – Alan Parsons, Stomu Yamashta and others – bringing musical heavy hitters together for a one-off album.

The cast of musicians is remarkable and, sadly, a number of them have been lost in the meantime. Viv Stanshall is the narrator, Manfred Mann plays the music for Peter, Gary Brooker is Bird, Chris Spedding & Gary Moore create Duck, Stephane Grappelli voices Cat, Wolf is created by Brian Eno and the Pond by Keith Tippett. The hunters are Jon Hiseman, Cozy Powell, Phil Collins, Alvin Lee, Robin Lumley and Julie Tippett with the English Chorale.

And it works. The characters are consistent, Prokofiev’s vision is kept intact but the music takes off in many variations of his original themes. The musicians are of the highest quality and the music is superb. If you are not into orchestral music then this has plenty to satisfy but even if you do like the original this will intrigue.

As is usual with Esoteric reissues, the remastering is top quality and the whole package is quite sumptuous.

Some albums from the mid-seventies sound dated and flat but this, possibly because it comes from such a strong base, is vibrant and fresh. An excellent project.