Two updated versions of Peter and the Wolf in the same month? Must be Christmas. The first is a knock-out arrangement of Prokofiev’s score for jazz band, a witty transformation that doffs its cap at Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Quincy Jones and others. The Bird is represented by flute and muted trumpet, the Duck, Cat and Grandfather by soprano, tenor and baritone saxophones respectively, Peter ‘by the three stringed instruments’ – piano, bass and guitar. The Amazing Keystone Big Band, an 18-piece French outfit, is simply terrific (try the Duck being chased by the Wolf – an improvement even on Prokofiev). The published text of Peter and the Wolf is a translation made by a linguist, not a script-writer, and in performance it needs a gifted narrator to lift it off the page. David Tennant does the job brilliantly, with much imaginative word-colouring and just the right level of enthusiasm (‘Hello everyone!’) without being arch or patronising.

This version may not support the original purpose of introducing children to the instruments of the symphony orchestra but for an introduction to first-class contemporary jazz it could hardly be bettered (seven additional tracks feature big-band arrangements inspired by Prokofiev’s themes). Le Chant du Monde’s disc comes with a fat booklet beautifully illustrated by Martin Jarrie containing the full text as spoken by Tennant (I just wish they’d noticed that ‘ouverture’ and ‘exemple’ are spelt differently in English).

From DG comes ‘a bold reimagining of the beloved children’s classic, brought spectacularly into the 21st century’, as the disc’s blurb has it. This prequel to Prokofiev’s children’s classic, co-written and conceived by three Americans collectively known as Giants Are Small, has poor little orphan Peter flying from Russia to Los Angeles to live with his grandfather, an ageing hippie (‘cool, man’) who works as a gardener in the grounds of a movie star’s house. A wolf escapes from a local zoo, Peter builds a robot to capture it and…well, I won’t spoil it for you. Nearly 25 minutes of bits and bobs of (mainly) core classical works are used to illustrate this Hollywood section before it flows seamlessly via Smetana’s ‘Vltava’ into Prokofiev’s familiar story and music. Well, up to a point. We are still in Hollywood: for ‘[duck] pond’ read ‘[swimming] pool’, while Prokofiev’s huntsmen, emerging from the wood with their guns, become paparazzi ‘following the trail of the wolf, shooting as they went’.

It is all rather charming, and an imaginative addition to an old favourite (both sections, by the way, further enlivened by vivid sound effects). Alice Cooper, ‘the Godfather of Shock Rock’, would seem to an improbable choice for narrator but, now 67 and the father of four children, he knows how to do a bedtime reading.

The music is played by the crisp and characterful National Youth Orchestra of Germany under the excellent Alexander Shelley (son of Howard). Will this modern fable followed by Prokofiev’s classic captivate today’s youngsters and get them hooked on classical music? Not for want of trying. Put it under the Christmas tree to find out.