In just under an hour the four members of Little Wolf Gang give vivid and lively accounts of three musical folk tales from Russia. The show opens with A Daring Fiddler Meets a Devilish Stranger at the Crossroads, a supernatural story that gives violinist Fiona Barrow plenty of opportunity to display her expressive and idiomatic skills, ably supported by Eddy Jay on accordion. Narrator Martin Maudsley revels in the devilish details, and makes it clear that audience participation is expected.

The fourth member of the gang is bassoonist David Adams, who joins the other three for the centerpiece of the show, Peter and The Wolf. Prokofiev created this wonderfully tuneful ‘children’s symphony’ in just four days, and in its original form the music is of course provided by an orchestra. Such is its popularity that an extraordinary variety of celebrities have been recorded tackling the story-telling, including Sophia Loren, David Bowie and Mikhail Gorbachev. This ‘chamber’ performance may be lacking in sumptuous orchestral colour, but it has an appealing intimacy and a sense of fun that will certainly engage younger members of the audience. I particularly enjoyed the way that David Adams plays the bassoon as though he actually is Peter’s grandfather, grumpily muttering away to himself about his brave but reckless grandson. In an inventive and amusing departure from the original he and Martin Maudsley present the hunters as a rather self-satisfied vocal duet. The tale comes to a rousing conclusion when Peter triumphantly marches the captured wolf off to St Peterburg’s zoo, while we are invited to ponder the fate of the duck, still quacking inside it.

The final short piece is A Foolish Woodcutter Discovers a Magical Wishing Tree, a morality tale that warns of the dreadful ursine fate that can befall those who wish for too much. The accompanying music is certainly not Russian, but as the alternative title for the story is Bear-lero you will know that it is very familiar indeed. Its repeating melody and inexorable crescendo are employed to great effect as the greedy woodcutter blindly heads towards his doom.

All four performers are very talented and they know how to entertain young people without patronizing them. They deserved a much larger audience than they had on the opening night, but they were rewarded with warm and well-merited applause at the end. Great fun.   ★★★☆☆    Mike Whitton    29/01/15