Writing for children was always important for Russian composers, and it suited Prokofiev's light-hearted, bouncy sense of humour especially, as also in works such as The ugly duckling (1914), the piano pieces Music for Children (1935), and his fairy-tale ballets Cinderella and The Stone Flower. Peter and the Wolf was written for the Central Children's Theatre in 1936, received its first performance that year, and was an immediate success. Three years later Shostakovich wrote a rather similar piece, The Silly Little Mouse, which is hugely entertaining and enchanting but uses no fewer than nine voices (one for each animal) in addition to a narrator.

sources

A  Autograph Particell with instructions for orchestration, together with the score orchestrated by Pavel Lamm with modifications in Prokofiev's hand, in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts, Moscow

E  First edition score (Russian text), published by State Music Publishers, Moscow in 1937