Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf: With a Fully-Orchestrated and Narrated CD

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love it

Brings back Memories

excellent, enriching

Great easy teaching tool!

Almost perfect

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf: With a Fully-Orchestrated and Narrated CD
Sergei Prokofiev , and Janet Schulman
Manufacturer: Knopf Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375824308
Release Date: 2004-09-14

Book Description

THERE IS NO better way to introduce children to classical music than with Prokofiev’s musical fairy tale of the little boy (played by all the strings of the orchestra) who, with the help of a bird (played by the flute), outsmarted the big, bad wolf (played by the French horns). And now with this book and CD package, children can look and listen all at the same time. A new retelling by Janet Schulman follows the basic story, but with a kinder ending for both the big bad wolf and the argumentative duck. Peter Malone’s paintings have the luminous quality of old Russian masters. The CD, with music performed by the Cincinnati Pops and word-for-word narration by Peter A. Thomas, was made exclusively for this book and CD package.

Customer Reviews:

love it.......2007-09-18

my daughter just loves this book, I think the music could be a little shorter in length between pages, but she doesn't seem to mind.

Brings back Memories.......2007-07-20

I loved this story as a child and was very pleased to find that my 3 year old nephew does as well. Very good for the imagination!

excellent, enriching.......2007-02-26

This is one of the best things I have purchased for my child. Every child should own this, especially in a time where school music programs are being cut. My child's appreciation for the arts has been enriched with this book and CD.

Great easy teaching tool!.......2007-01-04

This book was a great way for my young students to get aquainted with many instrumentes of the orchestra. They loved the story, and the music made it come alive!!

Almost perfect.......2006-11-06

I did not like very much the style of the illustrations, but that is really subjective :) Any way - great book, great music, I enjoy it myself (and I am an adult! :)

Average customer rating:

For Adult Bono Fans or can be adapted for children...
Peter and the wolf
Highly recommended!
Help children develop multi-focal literacy
Great for all ages

Peter and the Wolf
Sergei Prokofiev , and Gavin Friday and The Friday-Seezer Ensemble
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1582343888

Book Description

Since its premiere in 1936, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf has become a classic beloved by generations of children and adults. For this enchanting new version of the story, Bono and his childhood friend Gavin Friday have collaborated on a stunning boxed set that includes a clothbound book and enhanced CD. The beautifully produced hardback book contains 64 pages of Bono's original paintings-with help from his daughters Jordan and Eve-to illustrate the story. And the enhanced CD features a fresh and funny rendition of the musical score, narrated in a sly and hilarious reading by Gavin Friday and performed by the Seezer Ensemble. Royalties from the project will benefit the Irish Hospice Foundation.

Customer Reviews:

For Adult Bono Fans or can be adapted for children..........2006-10-31

"Beware... for wolves come in many disquises."

Peter lives with his grandfather in a cottage surrounded by a high stone wall near a deep, dark forest. In the story we meet a number of animals. The story is read by Irish musician, Gavin Friday, who has a very enjoyable sensuous voice.

To make this book kid friendly (from my teacherish perspective), I'd recommend glueing the first cat picture page shut. You could buy one for the kids and one as a collector item - so if you object, the problem can be easily remedied. I just think it is a little too suggestive for younger children (unless they are used to art museums, then they won't blink an eye), although adults will easily see the double meaning of the book's contents that seems to deal with temptation and being swallowed up by darkness. The other pictures seem fine.

The duck with the bill that extends out like a cross seems to be in contrast with the first bird that looks more like a dove. I took it to mean you should live your beliefs instead of just making them a show. Pretty clever to show that in an illustration so subtely. The dove and the cat also contrast sharply and the meaning is very clear.

Bono's illustrations are beautiful and he drew the pictures with the help of his children. I purchased this for a collector friend and couldn't help myself, I read it first and listened to the CD. For some reason, I thought Bono would be reading the story.

My dad heard me listening to this in the office and thought it would be fun to listen to on Halloween. There are fun elements of suspense throughout the music and now and then it gets a "little" scarry.

For adults who heard the music as children, the combination of the music and the story makes the story much more meaningful.

~The Rebecca Review

Peter and the wolf.......2005-09-20

This CD and book set is absolutely wonderful. Maurice Seezer and Gavin Friday have done a fantastic job of the musical arrangements and Gavin's voice is perfect. The illustrations by Bono and his two girls are perfect, it just shows how talented they all are. I have purchased this as a gift that my 18 month old daughter will hopefully have forever and I will make sure that I also get a copy for my soon-to-be-born son.

Highly recommended!.......2004-02-25

When I was a little girl I loved to listen to the story of Peter and the Wolf. As an adult, I have grown to love celtic music and traditional Irish instruments. So when this set came out I was eager to purchase it -- and I was thrilled with what I got.

The music is beautifully performed by the Friday-Seezer ensemble. Each instrument comes alive as the animal it is supposed to represent. While the music is definitely Prokofiev (no doubt about that) it has an Irish flavor that is just enchanting.

Although I wasn't too keen on the pictures when I viewed them on a website, I thought they worked wonderfully in this book accompanied by the music.

And last, but not least, Gavin Friday cannot get enough credit for his wonderful narration of the story.

All in all, the story is whimsical and fun, just like I remembered it to be. I agree with the other reviewer that it would be nice if the book were larger, but aside from that I have nothing but praise for this set.

Help children develop multi-focal literacy.......2004-01-10

Buy this book! As a librarian, and mother of three, I highly reccomend this book and CD for both children and adults. This initiative by the Irish Hospice Foundation joins the considerable musical talents of Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer with spirited illustrations by Bono to create a richly rewarding sensory experience.
The narration and orchestration are novel and pure listening pleasure for children and adults. The practice of enriching text with thoughtful art and quality music has the well-documented effect of promoting literacy and improving cognitive skills in children. This project does that, and does it extremely well.
My only complaint with the book is that the size is too small to share easily with large groups of children.

Great for all ages.......2004-01-09

Being a Gavin Friday fan (so much so that we named our son Gavin) I had to get this boxed set when it came out and I was not dissapointed. The illustrations were wonderful, Gavin's reading of the story (and the music) was simply amazing.

Perhaps the more American puritanical parents will have issues with bare breasts illustrated, however most of the world would find nothing objectionable to even younger than the "recommended" age. I found it simply refreshing that illustrations in a children's geared book are not devoid of body parts which everyone has and what most (thankfully) associate with feeding children and not sex.

Book Description

Sergey Prokofiev, a compulsive diarist and gifted and idiosyncratic writer, possessed an incorrigibly sardonic curiosity about individuals and events. When he left Russia after the 1917 Revolution, his diaries were recovered from the family flat in Petrograd and later hidden at considerable personal risk by the composer Nikolai Myaskovsky. Prokofiev himself smuggled them out of the country after his first return to the Soviet Union in 1927. The later diaries, written in the West, were brought back by legal decree after the composer's death in 1953, to be kept in an inaccessible section of the Soviet State Archive. Eventually Prokofiev's son Sviatoslav was allowed to transcribe the voluminous contents. When he and his son Sergei eventually emigrated to Paris, they undertook the gigantic task of reproducing the partially encoded manuscript in an intelligible form.

Diaries, 1907-1914, the first of three volumes that extend to 1933, covers Prokofiev's years at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Simultaneously attached to and exasperated by the tradition exemplified by composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, and Tcherepnin, the brash young genius relishes the power of his talent to irritate, challenge, and finally overcome the establishment. In candid and lively prose, he records the all-too-normal preoccupations of a young man making his way in the brilliant social and artistic circles of the prewar Russian capital. Virtually every artist and musician of note appears in these pages, in penetrating and not always flattering vignettes. Prokofiev's main subject, however, is music, its creation and its performance. He reveals his own developing aesthetic principles through his assessments of the works of others, even as he composes such early masterpieces as the First and Second Piano Concertos, The Ugly Duckling, the First Violin Concerto, and the Classical Symphony.

Customer Reviews:

Please, Sergei, not another f-sharp!.......2002-06-09

Though, in general, I could not agree more with the previous reviewer's abhorence of the note f-sharp - I for one would love to see Mr. Prokofiev further explore the use of the vastly underrated note g-flat, I could not disagree more with his enthusiasm for Mr. Prokofiev's first piece. What is here to love? What is its great attraction - its naivite, its sophoristic cleverness, its innocuous unctuousness? My only regret is that he had already published it before it was too late - certainly second thoughts that would have led to aan appropriate final resting place in the living room fireplace were to arrive not too soon after that fateful day. And as for being a babe-magnet, the chicks today are much too sophisticated. No longer are women swooning at the mere intonation of that previously-thought-to-be dangerous f-sharp. Sure, we men all regret the day when a couple of deftly composed f-sharps would throw a woman into one's arms, and have her throw caution to the wind - life was so simple then. But today's modern 21st-century woman is way beyond that. Today, no single sexy note will do. For this I recommend, Mr. P's seventh. Sure that old-fashioined f-sharp is still present, but now the chromatic approach says: "yes, or course I'm unctuous - but in a good way." And those d-flats!!! Those show the depths of one's inner nature. And finally a g-flat!!! So delicious. We can only thankful that Mr. P lived long enough to finally see the light and incorporate that most luminous of notes - the g-flat - into his compositional bag of tricks.

I bought a piano for this????!!!.......2002-03-12

First of all let me preface my review by saying that I loved the author's first work. Loved it. However, this is not the author's first work. I don't know what Sergei was smoking, or who he was smoking it with, but it fried the parts of his brain responsible for plot and character development. First of all he spends way too much time with f sharp. I mean it's constantly f this or f that and always sharp, never flat or just plain f. Too many freakin' f's. I can say one good thing about the 'Complete Piano Sonats'. It did get me away from the computer. Unfortunately it didn't create anywhere near the stir amongst the ladies that was promised in the infomercial.
In conclusion: buy this only if you enjoy playing music on the piano more than I do.

Sarcasms, Visions Fugitives and Other Short Works for Piano

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Sarcasms, Visions Fugitives and Other Short Works for Piano
Sergei Prokofiev
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486410919

Book Description

New collection displays composer's lyrical charm with 4 Etudes, Op. 2; 4 Pieces, Op. 3; 4 Pieces, Op. 4; Toccata, Op. 11; 10 Pieces, Op. 12; Sarcasms, Op. 17; Visions fugitives, Op. 22; Tales of an Old Grandmother, Op. 31; 4 pieces, Op. 32; and March and Scherzo, Op. 33 (from The Love for Three Oranges).

Peter and the Wolf: Based on the Orchestral Tale by Sergei Prokofiev

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Peter and the Wolf: Based on the Orchestral Tale by Sergei Prokofiev
Selina Hastings , and Sergei Prokofiev
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0805004084

S. Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences

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S. Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences
Sergei Prokofiev , Rose Prokofieva , and S. Shlifstein
Manufacturer: University Press of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0898751497

Book Description

Sergei Prokofiev was a bold innovator who eschewed the beaten path in art all his life, often in definance of orthodox tastes. His compositions, many of which are today recognized masterpieces of musical art, usually evoked either genuine bewilderment or sharp criticism when first performed.

Prokofiev's music is performed today all over the world; his works are studied at music schools everywhere.

The first two parts of this book are devoted to the composer's own writings (his autobiographical notes, articles and reviews), the rest to articles about Prokofiev by prominent Soviet musicians, artists, and others who were associated with him at one or another period of his life.

Average customer rating:

Great book for all Prokofiev fans!

Prokofiev
Israel V. Nestyev
Manufacturer: Stanford Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0804705852

Customer Reviews:

Great book for all Prokofiev fans!.......2001-06-07

I am a big fan of Prokofiev, and when I had to write a research paper, I definitely used Nestyev's book as one of my sources! In fact, it was one of my main sources (you should see my footnotes--they're heavily biased towards Nestyev). I can't even put into words how wonderful I think this book is (I know that sounds ridiculous)! It's well-written, with the thoughts and ideas being very organized and supported well. Nestyev is obviously a big Prokofiev fan as well, and if you are too, then you should get this book (it's already on my birthday wish list)!

Prokofiev (Life & Times Series) (Life&Times series)

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Prokofiev (Life & Times Series) (Life&Times series)
Thomas Schipperge
Manufacturer: Haus Publishers Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1904341322

Book Description

Sergey Prokofiev (1891-1953) lived his life caught between East and West, old and new. He was born in Czarist Russia, and belonged to the avant-garde, but left to live abroad during the Revolution. He returned a decade later as a musical celebrity, influenced by modern Western music, but soon his relationship with the Soviet authorities deteriorated into condemnation and censorship. In spite of this, some Western critics have branded his music Socialist Realism and indeed the Soviets praised him for his collaborations with the filmmaker Sergey Eisenstein. Today his admirers all over the world celebrate his music, which includes his many piano works, his opera The Love for Three Oranges, his ballet music for Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, and the musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf.

Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2, Op. 64c: Study Score

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Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2, Op. 64c: Study Score

Manufacturer: G. Schirmer, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 4118926628

Book Description

In this startlingly funny and wonderfully honest book of essays, Mimi Schwartz describes what it means to be married for almost forty years. She writes with a keen and amused eye about growing up in an immigrant Jewish family, coming of age in New York in the 1950s, marrying her high school beau, and then arriving at feminist consciousness in the 1970s like so many others of her generation. But unlike many of her contemporaries who left first marriages for independence, Schwartz stayed loyal to her marriage.

With refreshing candor Schwartz describes the ongoing challenge of marriage, where success is never without ambivalence and humor. Her essays are wise and warm without being sentimental, and the characters in Schwartz's world are quirky and as charming, well rounded, and complex as those found in any novel.

Customer Reviews:

Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed are bitter-sweet........2002-04-29

Mimi Schwartz's "Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed" was ordered for me as a gift. I found the book to be a most entertaining series of essays, covering a 15 years period. Particularly of interest to those of us who have been married for a number of years. I share many of Mimi's thoughts about marriage, the problems of merging a night person with a day person and it was good to see them in print. Mimi writes with honesty, humor and optimism. She has a mastectomy and husband Stu suffers a heart attack, but she is undaunted. She accepts married life with all its nuances and muses on them for our benefit. Knowing that she is loved by Stu doesn't prevent her from toying with the idea of an affair. Her husband Stu snores and she wraps her arms around him for comfort. Their marriage is like an old shoe, comfortable even if a bit shabby looking after so many years. Mimi takes us through her family history, raising children, and looking forward to grandchildren, through petty squabbles and making love after an argument. She writes from the heart. Thank you Gerry for sending me this gift. Rita Berman - author of The A - Z of Writing and Selling, 1981.

A Range of Human Concerns.......2002-03-13

A Review of Mimi Schwartz's Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed

Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed is a wonderful collection of personal essays about Schwartz's life as a single then a married woman, as a wife and mother, and as a women committed to her own profession. These snapshots of her life--portrayed with humor, sensitivity, and insight-make fascinating reading for women and men who, like the author, lived through the 50s and 60s and who can easily identify with her dilemmas. But it also provides other readers with an insightful peek into living, dating, and marrying in an earlier era.

In Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed, one encounters a range of human concerns, among them: the tensions of being a first generation American, and a Jew, in a culture of mostly established Gentiles; the desire to stay slim, attractive, and healthy in world where women weren't expected to be athletic; the stresses of juggling marriage, the demands of motherhood, and a successful career... [and] the temptations to stray from a long term marriage....
I found reading this book a great pleasure. Schwartz has mastered the form of the personal essay, and her craft is evident on every page. In "A Night for Haroset," for example, she recounts a family Passover Seder that is rich with overtones of the couple's recent illnesses, of Schwartz's fragile connection to Judaism, and of interfamilial tensions.

The family is alive and well in these essays, and I hated to have to stop reading. Had there been more, I would have gleefully continued making a glutton of myself.

For Better or Worse.......2002-03-02

It is refreshing to read a book about family life that is not dysfunctional. Mimi Schwartz in her new book of essays "Thoughts From a Queen-Sized Bed," has given us a view of her life and experiences that could be anybody's "normal" family. Her thoughts on growing up, parents, love, marriage, children, celebrations, vacations, illness and death, all felt familiar and I kept finding myself nodding in agreement. In fact, in several of the essays, I thought Ms. Schwartz had been a fly on the wall of my house! I really enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about life in a humorous and touching way.

For the Long Haul.......2002-02-22

What makes for an enduring marriage? My reading of Mimi Schwartz is that a portion of wry detachment comes in handy. Unlike so many women of her (and my) generation who have abandoned a marriage or two on the way to professional success and personal fulfillment, Schwartz has stuck with her Stu, and he with her, and these essays often give off a bit of the tension that underlies such give and take. My standards for good memoir rest more on the quality of reflection than on the drama of the incidents,and Schwartz is a sharp observer of the everyday. But there is plenty of shadow here, most prominently her father's narrow escape from the Holocaust, a family historic event that left her not only cognizant of calamity but grateful for good fortune.Would I recommend this book for newly-weds? Maybe after the first big fight. The more battle-scarred among us will applaud the couples' continuing attraction to each other.

A gift from a Queen Sized Bed.......2002-02-21

Mimi Schwartz's memoir, Thoughts from a Queen Sized Bed, had me alternately laughing out loud, and crying quietly by myself. Her book is a series of short essays about marriage, family, motherhood, illness, work, life, and more!

What is so poignant about this collection is that it is a raw, deeply honest and open memoir that reveals insights into the author's heart. But more than that, her revelations about her own life are, at times, so universal that anyone can find a thought that pertains to their own experience in the world. Her words about her life help us define our own selves more accutely.

There is a humorous chapter on a family reunion "Alan Should Have Rented a Car," that touches on everyone's experience of such an event: the joy and intensity of being with people with whom you have love, history, and future, and yet the inherent difficulty, and real frustration and saddness that such gatherings also deliver.

At times her honesty is so brutal that its makes one want to wince and look away from her pain. Her chapter on breast cancer and mastectomy, "Dreaming of Lace," was brutally honest. And yet her words make us understand the experience in a profound and yet very human way.

Other essays force us to search inside ourselves and face our own follies and foibles, as we follow along with hers. She deals with everything from friendship to betrayal, from getting lost on the way to Cape Cod (who hasn't had the argument about who forgot the map and should we ask for directions?) to finding ones way on the Galapagos Islands. She shares secrets with us about parenting her children, and watching her children become parents, and she forces us to examine our own views of death and dying as she commandingly - yet with a touch of doubt - shares her views with us.

This is a brilliant, beautiful memoir that will not only touch your heart, but aid you in knowing your own life a little deeper.

Thank you Mimi Schwartz, for such a gift!

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