Carmen-Suite

The Carmen Suite is a unique musical fusion composed by Rodion Shchedrin in 1967, specifically designed for his wife, the legendary ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Shchedrin took Bizet’s celebrated opera melodies and reimagined them through a modern lens, scoring the piece exclusively for strings and an extensive battery of percussion instruments. The work was initially met with some resistance from Soviet authorities, who found the irreverent orchestration to be a departure from traditional operatic norms, but it quickly secured its place as a staple of the 20th-century repertoire.

This specific 1973 pressing on the Melodiya label, catalog number 33 С01659—60, represents a standard Soviet-era release of the suite. Melodiya, the state-owned record label of the USSR, was instrumental in distributing this recording to a broad audience, capturing the dynamic and driving energy of the percussion-heavy arrangement. It stands as a testament to the cultural bridge built between the classical legacy of the 19th century and the avant-garde spirit of the Soviet ballet scene.