Carmen-Suite für Schlagzeug & Streicher

They are two of the most famous works in music history: Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake and Bizet's opera Carmen. For the album Swan Lake Suite & Carmen Suite, musician Mikhail Pletnev chose the popular arrangement by Rodion Shchedrin based on Bizet's masterpiece and his own arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. In his suite, Mikhail Pletnev rearranged the scenes and placed the light-footed dance scenes in the palace at the center. The dreamy music of the fairy tale ballet ultimately culminates in the dramatic finale: when the evil sorcerer unleashes the fatal storm in which the prince and his swan princess perish, enormous musical forces are also unleashed. The fiery sounds of Carmen's Habanera contrast with the chaste swan courtship. They inspired composer Rodion Shchedrin to write his suite. In 1967, he transformed Bizet's opera into a ballet, which he wrote especially for his wife. She was the first dancer at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and performed the role of the self-determined Carmen so sensuously that the premiere in socialist Russia became a scandal. Conductor Mikhail Pletnev and his Rachmaninoff International Orchestra (RIO) breathe new life into the passionate sounds of the two contrasting suites.