You know the

    moment you pop this CD in, and that gruff, old-world voice

    starts in with, “Did you hear of boychick Pincus, how he

    opened wide the gate and hippedy-hopped over the sweet, warm

    meadow?” that this is not your father’s Peter and the

    Wolf.

    This new

    interpretation of Prokofiev’s children’s classic, with

    drawings and narration by Maurice Sendak, dispenses with pop

    guns in favor a farm scene where Peter — here known as

    Pincus — courageously faces down what was formerly the

    dreaded wolf: Chozzer the pig.

    You know you’re

    in for a treat when Sendak introduces us to the characters

    (and their individual tunes) and the familiar music begins —

    but in a minor key? The Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, which

    collaborated with Sendak for Pincus, gives us a

    rousing new treatment of the little boy’s journey into the

    forest. Little Yiddish phrases — “klutz” and “schlemiel”

    come to mind — in the dialogue between Pincus and his Zeyde,

    the music all the while swirling and bubbling to a full boil

    before the story ends with a bang as the Cossacks (we knew

    ’em as the Russians in the original) shoot the pig and haul

    it off to the butcher.

    With wonderful

    drawings on the album jacket (and stickers!) that round out

    the fun rewrite of the story and the breathtaking music —

    plus four klezmer versions of well-known classical pieces

    such as Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sheherezade” and a waltz by

    Brahms following Pincus’s story — it will be hard to find a

    CD this Hanukkah that’s as fun as this one for the whole

    family to enjoy.