Peter and the Wolf

Year Narrator Orchestra Conductor Notes Listen
1939 Richard Hale Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitzky Set of 3 shellac 12" discs 🎵
1941 Basil Rathbone All-American Orchestra Leopold Stokowski Set of 3 shellac 12" discs, restored from original Masterworks set by Bob Varney 🎵
1949 Sterling Holloway Graunke Symphony Orchestra Kurt Graunke Set of 2 vinyl 10" discs, together with a Little Nipper Storybook from Disney; originally made for an episode in the 1946 film Make Mine Music 🎵
1949 Frank Phillips London Philharmonic Orchestra Nikolai Malko Frank Phillips was a well-known BBC Radio newsreader
1950 Eleanor Roosevelt Boston Symphony Orchestra Serge Koussevitzky mono recording; never reissued on CD 🎵
1950 Milton Cross Lucy Brown, piano 4 shellac 10" 78-rpm discs
1953 Alec Guinness Boston Pops Orchestra Arthur Fiedler 🎵
1953 Victor Jory Peter Pan Orchestra Vicky Kosen mono recording; has never been issued on CD 🎵
1954 Richard Hale Boston Pops Orchestra Arthur Fiedler
1955 Henry Morgan Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Otto Ackermann The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra is named on this record "Concert Hall Symphony Orchestra".
1955 Arthur Godfrey Andre Kostelanetz's Orchestra Andre Kostelanetz mono recording; has never been issued on CD 🎵
1955 Brandon deWilde Pro Musica Symphony, Vienna Hans Swarowsky PL9280 (mono), STPL59280 (stereo). Matrix VS3076 🎵
1956 Peter Ustinov Philharmonia Orchestra Herbert von Karajan 🎵
1957 Cyril Ritchard Philadelphia Orchestra Eugene Ormandy 🎵
1957 Boris Karloff Vienna State Opera Orchestra Mario Rossi 🎵
1959 Michael Flanders Philharmonia Orchestra Efrem Kurtz 🎵
1959 José Ferrer Vienna State Opera Orchestra Sir Eugene Goossens Narrated in Spanish and English 🎵
1959 Richard Attenborough Philharmonia of Hamburg Hans-Jürgen Walter
1960 Beatrice Lillie London Symphony Orchestra Skitch Henderson 🎵
1960 Captain Kangaroo Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York Leopold Stokowski 🎵
1960 Leonard Bernstein New York Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein The popularity of the group's televised Young People's Concerts made this an auspicious release. In the French release the narrator is Alban Liebl, in the German Matthias Ernst Holzmann and in the Portuguese Roberto Carlos. 🎵
1960 Garry Moore Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of London Artur Rodziński The reverse side of this 12-inch LP record also features The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns with Garry Moore (narrator), Josef and Grete Dichler (duopianists), and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra conducted by Hermann Scherchen. 🎵
1961 Carlos Pellicer Orquesta Sinfónica de México Carlos Chávez
1962 Kenneth Horne Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra Otto Ackermann 🎵
1963 Alec Clunes French National Orchestra Lorin Maazel In the French release the narrator is Madeleine Renaud, in the German Mathias Wieman, in the Italian Eduardo De Filippo, in the Spanish Juan Pulido and in the Japanese Tetsuko Kuroyanagi. 🎵
1963 Eric Shilling Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Karel Ančerl 🎵
1965 Lorne Greene London Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent 🎵
1965 Sean Connery Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Antal Doráti 🎵
1967 Eric Robinson Royal Philharmonic Orchestra James Walker 🎵
1968 Robie Lester Graunke Symphony Orchestra Kurt Graunke originally from the 1946 film Make Mine Music 🎵
1969 Paul Daneman The Little Symphony Of London Arthur Davison The reverse side of this recording is Sleigh Ride (dance 3 of Three German Dances by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), and Toy Symphony (generally attributed to Leopold Mozart). 🎵
1970 Sir Ralph Richardson London Symphony Orchestra Sir Malcolm Sargent Volume 5 of The World of the Great Classics series. This version is praised in various editions of The Stereo Record Guide as the finest recording and narration of the work ever made. 🎵
1971 Richard Baker New Philharmonia Orchestra Raymond Leppard 🎵
1972 George Raft London Festival Orchestra Stanley Black In this version, the story is reformulated as a gangster tale in the style of the Hollywood films that Raft had once acted in. 🎵
1972 Rob Reiner studio orchestra Jerry Yester Contemporary version by Carl Gottlieb and Rob Reiner; never released on CD 🎵
1973 Mia Farrow London Symphony Orchestra André Previn 🎵
1973 Alec McCowen Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Bernard Haitink The German release featured Hermann Prey as narrator. 🎵
1974 Will Geer English Chamber Orchestra Johannes Somary 🎵
1975 Viv Stanshall various rock musicians, including ,Manfred Mann,Gary Moore,Phil Collins,Brian Eno,Gary Brooker,Bill Bruford,Cozy Powell,Chris Spedding,Alvin Lee,Julie Tippett Billed as a 'rock version' of Prokofiev's work
1975 Hermione Gingold Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Karl Böhm The original German LP release featured Karlheinz Böhm as narrator (2530 587). The UK, and Australian releases featured Hermione Gingold (2530 588). The French release featured narrator Jean Richard (2530 640).
1977 Angela Rippon Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Owain Arwel Hughes 🎵
1978 David Bowie Philadelphia Orchestra Eugene Ormandy Bowie's recording reached number 136 on the US Pop Albums chart. 🎵
1979 Carol Channing Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Erich Kunzel
1980 Tom Seaver Cincinnati Pops Orchestra Erich Kunzel
1984 Dudley Moore, Terry Wogan Boston Pops Orchestra John Williams The American release (412 559–2) was narrated by Dudley Moore, while the UK release (412 556–2) featured Terry Wogan as narrator. 🎵
1984 William F. Buckley Jr. RTL Orchestra Luxembourg Leopold Hager
1986 Itzhak Perlman Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta EMI/Angel also released an LP and later a CD with Perlman narrating in Hebrew. 🎵
1987 André Previn Royal Philharmonic Orchestra André Previn 🎵
1987 Lina Prokofiev Royal Scottish National Orchestra Neeme Järvi Lina Prokofiev was Sergei Prokofiev's first wife 🎵
1987 Paul Hogan Orchestre de Paris Igor Markevitch It retained the traditional plot but transferred the locale to the Australian Outback. This recording was withdrawn soon after its release because of unflattering portrayals of Australia's aboriginal people and is now considered "out of print". It is available on YouTube, but was not included here.
1988 "Weird Al" Yankovic LSI Philharmonic Wendy Carlos Released as an orchestral comic adaptation of the story, narrated by "Weird Al" Yankovic. This also features "The Carnival of the Animals – Part Two", a parody of The Carnival of the Animals.
1989 Jonathan Winters Philharmonia Orchestra Efrem Kurtz 🎵
1989 Sir Peter Ustinov Philharmonia Orchestra Philip Ellis 🎵
1989 Jeremy Nicholas Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Ondrej Lenárd
1989 Christopher Lee English String Orchestra Sir Yehudi Menuhin 🎵
1989 Sir John Gielgud Orchestra of the Academy of London Richard Stamp Sir John's royalties for this recording were donated to The League of Friends of Charity Heritage, a facility for physically handicapped children. 🎵
1989 Noni Hazlehurst Sydney Symphony Orchestra Stuart Challender Hazlehurst also narrated the Saint-Saëns/Ogden Nash The Carnival of the Animals on the same album
1990 Sting Chamber Orchestra of Europe Claudio Abbado CD, EAN 0028942939622. This was used in 1993 as the soundtrack to the television special Peter and the Wolf: A Prokofiev Fantasy. The French release features Charles Aznavour as narrator, the Italian Roberto Benigni, the Spanish José Carreras, the German Barbara Sukowa (EAN 0028942939424). 🎵
1991 Oleg Prokofiev, Gabriel Prokofiev New London Orchestra Ronald Corp The narrators were the son and grandson of the composer. 🎵
1991 Dom DeLuise The Little Orchestra Society Dino Anagnost This was part of the album called "Three Children's Classics". 🎵
1991 Jack Lemmon Prague Festival Orchestra Pavel Urbanek CD, EAN 0018111538626 🎵
1993 Peter Schickele Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Yoel Levi With a new text by Peter Schickele.
1994 Patrick Stewart Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon Kent Nagano 🎵
1994 Melissa Joan Hart Boston Symphony Orchestra Seiji Ozawa Hart was in her "Clarissa" persona from the Nickelodeon television series Clarissa Explains It All. 🎵
1994 Sir John Gielgud Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Andrea Licata
1995 Kirstie Alley RCA Symphony Orchestra George Daugherty From the Chuck Jones TV special Peter and the Wolf 🎵
1996 Ben Kingsley London Symphony Orchestra Sir Charles Mackerras
1997 Dame Edna Everage Melbourne Symphony Orchestra John Lanchbery 🎵
1997 Anthony Dowell Ross MacGibbon, director (video) Film of a ballet performance, starring David Johnson, Layla Harrison, Karan Lingham 🎵
2000 David Attenborough BBC Philharmonic Yan Pascal Tortelier for BBC Music Magazine; a free CD came with the June 2000 issue
2000 Lenny Henry Nouvel Ensemble Instrumental Du Conservatoire National Supérieur De Paris Jacques Pési 🎵
2001 Sharon Stone Orchestra of St. Luke's James Levine as part of A Classic Tale: Music for Our Children (289 471 171–72, 2001) 🎵
2001 Joey Mazzarinoas Papa Bear The Boston Pops Orchestra Keith Lockhart as part of Elmo's Musical Adventure
2003 Antonio Banderas, Sophia Loren Russian National Orchestra Kent Nagano In Spanish
2003 Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Sophia Loren Russian National Orchestra Kent Nagano Released as Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf. Loren narrated Peter and the Wolf, Clinton narrated Wolf Tracks (composed by Jean-Pascal Beintus with text by Walt Kraemer), and Gorbachev narrated the Introduction, Intermezzo, and Epilogue. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children. 🎵
2004 Bradley Cole Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot, Ladies Swing Quartet Wojciech Rajski
2005 Willie Rushton London Philharmonic Orchestra Siân Edwards
2006 Colm Feore Windsor Symphony Orchestra John Morris Russell
2007 Michael York Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra Miguel Harth-Bedoya
2008 Jacqueline du Pré English Chamber Orchestra Daniel Barenboim 🎵
2011 Phillip Schofield Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse Michel Plasson
2012 Bramwell Tovey Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Bramwell Tovey 🎵
2015 Alice Cooper Bundesjugendorchester Alexander Shelley
2015 Harry Shearer Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra Carlos Miguel Prieto
2015 David Tennant The Amazing Keystone Band
2017 Miriam Margolyes Adelaide Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Carter With Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Borodin's "Polovtsian Dances" 🎵
2017 Alexander Armstrong Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Vasily Petrenko 🎵
2018 Giacomo Gates New England Jazz Ensemble Jeff Holmes Complete Peter and the Wolf score arranged for jazz ensemble by Walter Gwardyak with modern libretto by Giacomo Gates. 🎵
2021 Viola Davis Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel 🎵

Table data from Wikipedia as of 2025-07-27.

Recording Statistics