I wanted to like Peter and the Wolf as a child. I really did. Sergey Prokofiev’s classic composition tells the story of a young Soviet boy named Peter who captures a wolf and convinces a band of hunters to send it to the zoo. The piece is often used to introduce young children to the orchestra because each of its characters is represented by a different musical instrument—the horns signal the entrance of the brash, violent wolf, while the curiously gentle Peter is personified by the string section.
