SHCHEDRIN Carmen-Suite
(complete ballet music for percussion and string orchestra)

Bizet’s colorful and flamboyant opera Carmen, with its eye-popping portrayal of on-the-street living filled with smoking, fighting, and drinking women scandalized Parisian audiences but became wildly famous for its music and emotional intensity.

Franz Welser-Möst offers a different look at this beloved work through a brilliant arrangement for string orchestra and percussion, created as a ballet score by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin for his dancer wife, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. The intense passions of this famously tune-filled opera are revealed in unexpected detail across thirteen movements, just begging you to dance.