TOS Review: Maestro Classics

I’ve reviewed Maestro Classics a few times on the Review Crew, but when it came up again as a possibility, I didn’t hesitate. Stories on CD (and tape… yes, we still have those! The tape player is getting finicky lately though, so thankfully, Maestro Classics is more with the times and offers CDs…) are pretty popular around here, particularly at bedtime. I received Peter and the Wolf on CD, complete with a little study guide tucked inside, for review.

I popped this in, oddly enough for us, during the day to listen to. I actually put it in while I was busy doing something in the living room but had the ability to listen, and then I watched what happened. Children trickled in. One at a time, until all seven, ages 19 months to 12 years, all crowded around on couches with rapt attention on the CD playing. The music that was about to play started out being described in detail by the conductor, so you knew which sounds stood for which character in the story. I thought the kids would find that uninteresting, but both of my older girls, ages 10 and 12, immediately began pointing out which music was playing each time it changed. They understood! Performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, this was not wimpy music. It made the story come alive, and the kids loved it! With music written by Sergei Prokofiev, Maestro Classics has taken a classic for children and brought it to life for children today to enjoy.

The story features Peter, his grandfather, a bird, a duck, a cat, and a wolf. Peter disobeys his grandfather and climbs over the garden’s wall. He runs into trouble but his friends – the bird, duck, and cat – help him to capture the wolf and the wolf is taken to the zoo. My children picked apart the story and it’s likelihood – concrete thinkers that they are – but the story was clever and fun. The music was definitely the star of the show, though.

After the story was over, we heard the story of Sergei Prokofiev and how the story came to be. Learning more about him was pretty interesting and helped it be something more than mere entertainment. There’s also an online study guide to make a unit study of the story and materials on the CD on the Maestro Classics website. Total playing time is just over an hour, with the story portion of that being about 25 minutes. The description of the music, a musical speech-free version of the story, a short section of folk instruments and more rounded out the playing time on the CD.

You can buy Peter and the Wolf on CD for $16.98, download the MP3 for $9.98, or buy it in the iTunes store for $9.99.

Find Maestro Classics on the web on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest.

We have enjoyed everything we’ve heard from Maestro Classics! They are so very much more than just a story on a CD. They have quite a few titles offered in similar format to Peter and the Wolf. Check them out! To read what the rest of the Crew thought of both this classic and the Maestro Classics offering of The Nutcracker, check out the Review Crew Blog.