FOR many children, Sergei Prokofiev's masterpiece Peter And The Wolf provides their first introduction to a classical orchestra. The narrated work in which each character is represented by a different instrument, from the brave Peter's strings to t
he vicious wolf's French horns, was written by Prokofiev after his return to the Soviet Union in 1936. So what was hearing it like for the great Russian composer's grandson, Gabriel, who grew up in London?
"I knew it very well as a child," the 33-year-old tells me. "Whenever there would be a big Prokofiev concert in London, we'd go as a family and sometimes meet the conductor afterwards, and my father narrated Peter And The Wolf a few times. It was as exciting to me as it was to every other kid. As I got older and started studying music I heard it again and noticed all these other details. I just thought, my god, this is such a well-crafted and complete piece of music. The only difference growing up was when people would say, 'that's your grandfather? That's amazing.' It was pretty embarrassing."
Peter And The Wolf is only 28 minutes long and because of that it is not as regularly performed as its popularity might suggest. "It only really gets played at family concerts and most people tend to just play it at home on CD," says Gabriel, who is also a composer, though his instrument of choice is more often the computer than the piano.
That's about to change. A London-based production company has won the rights from Gabriel and his cousin to stage the work as a full-length piece of dance theatre, combining their grandfather's original with a newly composed score by Philip Feeney and choreography by Didy Veldman, who in the past has danced with Rambert, Ballet du Grand Theatre de Geneve and created Cinderella for Goteborg Ballet, Sweden. Feeney's new score will form the first act of the show, introducing the characters – and including some new ones – before the familiar strains of Prokofiev's masterpiece make up the second half. Gabriel's only stipulation when he was approached by director Anne Geenen was that his grandfather's original be kept intact.
The full-length show opened in Amsterdam to standing ovations and will travel to Scotland this month, with Brian Blessed taking on the role of narrator. "I took my two-year-old daughter to see it and she loved it," says Gabriel. "It was a really big occasion, and a Dutch film star played the narrator." That the story, based on Prokofiev's own childhood memories, is about a boy and his grandfather only makes the link over generations more poignant.
As a composer who has produced for British rapper Lady Sovereign, written a concerto for a scratch DJ – which the RSNO will perform in Glasgow in June – and runs a monthly 'club night' showcasing contemporary classical music in a pub in east London, did Gabriel not want a crack at composing for Peter And The Wolf himself? "Because I do music there did end up being a dialogue between the family and the company, and I went to some rehearsals," he says. "But I didn't want to get too involved. It's a bit too close to home. Maybe when I'm older and have got a bigger career behind me I might have the confidence to do that."
It has taken a long time for Gabriel to operate under the family name at all, so nervous was he about the pressures that go with having an ancestor who is considered one of the greatest composers of the past century. Although he studied classical music to post-graduate level and plays piano and French horn, it was only in 2004 that he decided to come out with it and use the Prokofiev name. Before that, he had a number of aliases that he refuses to divulge. "One of the downsides of being the grandson of a famous composer who was also a brilliant performer was that I often felt very self-conscious when I was younger," he says. "People would be very curious about whether I was any good at music and there was a lot of expectation. I even found practising intimidating, so my playing isn't something I've developed that much, unfortunately."
Prokofiev had died by the time his grandson was born, on the same day in 1953 as Stalin died. When I ask Gabriel if his father, a painter and sculptor who grew up in Moscow and moved to London with his second wife, Gabriel's mother, would tell him stories about his relationship with his own father, the first memory that springs to mind is a formidable one. "My dad told me he and his brother had been given piano lessons with a really scary teacher when they were very young," he says. "They were basically just scared, but my grandfather wrote them off and said they didn't have a musical bone in their bodies. It was a real shame because my dad had an excellent ear. Mind you, it was probably better for him. It's not easy if you're the son of Prokofiev." Gabriel adds that he only recently read his grandfather's autobiography. "In order to not be too intimidated by this great ancestor of mine, I haven't delved too deeply into all these life stories."
Prokofiev composed his first piece for piano at the age of five, getting his mother – a pianist – to take it down as he refused to touch the black keys. By seven he was playing chess and by nine he was working on an opera. Little wonder Gabriel is intimated. In fact, he started young himself. "I had my first piano lessons when I was seven," he says. "But, really, my discovery of music came when I wrote my first pop song at 10."
It's a thoroughly modern version of child prodigy, and Gabriel has gone on to mix elements of contemporary classical with electronic and dance music. His music has even been remixed by Hot Chip, and it doesn't get much more bang up to date than that. "I performed my songs in assembly with a friend, both sitting in front of a Casio keyboard," he says, with a laugh. "Not very classical, is it?" v
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Peter And The Wolf is at Edinburgh Festival Theatre (0131-529 6000), March 26-27, 1pm and 5pm