Afternoon Performance: Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf

Early one morning, Peter opened the gate and went out into the big green meadow… and if you know Prokofiev’s “symphonic tale for children”, you’ll already be humming that tune. Age doesn’t matter with music as enjoyable as this!

With Chief Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth and a charismatic narrator, it’s a perfect finale to a whole concert of music at its most playful, witty and wise. Aaron Copland salutes a great American statesman, and crams a whole symphony into 15 primary-coloured minutes: a mini-masterpiece from the decade that saw the birth of the BBC SSO. In between, BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist Sterling Elliott sings and sparkles his way through Tchaikovsky’s delightful showpiece for cello and orchestra.