Concerto Grosso No. 1 / Carmen-Suite

Released by Deutsche Grammophon in 1992, this recording features the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa under the baton of Hiroyuki Iwaki. It pairs Alfred Schnittke’s polystylistic Concerto Grosso No. 1, a cornerstone of late 20th-century Soviet music that juxtaposes Baroque structures with dissonant modernism, alongside the Carmen Suite, an arrangement of Bizet’s opera melodies by Rodion Shchedrin. Shchedrin originally composed the suite for his wife, the legendary ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, stripping the orchestral score down to strings and percussion to highlight the rhythmic vitality of the music.

The album reflects the international reach of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, which sought to bridge classical traditions with adventurous 20th-century repertoire during the early 1990s. Schnittke’s work, in particular, was widely viewed at the time as a profound commentary on the collapse of cultural barriers, reflecting the composer's struggle with political censorship and his eventual emergence as a definitive voice of the era. The recording is noted for its clarity and the precise, disciplined approach Iwaki brought to these demanding and highly contrasting compositions.