Rodion Shchedrin: Carmen Suite; Concertos for Orchestra Nos. 1 & 2

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Shchedrin's Carmen Ballet, a hit in the 1960s, still amuses, delights, entertains, and, for some, enrages. It's full of Bizet's great melodies, but instead of a fancy-dress version of great hits from Carmen, Shchedrin's reorchestration features extravagant percussion effects and fascinating original variations. So it's a truly original work in the long line of parody pieces central to 20th century music, including the reworking of Baroque music by Stravinsky, Respighi, and others. Pletnev and his fine orchestra play the daylights out of it, and the engineers make the most of its "hi-fi spectacular" potential. Arthur Fiedler, the Boston Pops, and RCA's "Living Stereo" engineers did it even better back in 1968, but this version can't fail to please. The Concertos for Orchestra are welcome fillers. The first, subtitled "Naughty Limericks," sounds like music to accompany a riotous cartoon. The second, "Chimes," is made of sterner stuff, with some dazzling trumpet and percussion passages in its middle section and an extended finale for bells and a dark-textured orchestra. This is one of those discs you can't go wrong with. --Dan Davis

Tracks:

Carmen Ste. Intro: Andante Assai
Carmen Ste. Dance: Allegro
Carmen Ste. First Intermezzo: Allegro Moderato - Andante Moderato - (Attacca:)
Carmen Ste. Changing Of The Guard: Moderato
Carmen Ste. Carmen's Entrance And Habanera: Allegro Moderato - Quasi Andante
Carmen Ste. Scene: Allegro Moderato - Tempo Precedente - Andante Assai
Carmen Ste. Second Intermezzo: Larghetto
Carmen Ste. Bolero: Allegro Vivo
Carmen Ste. Torero: Moderato Con Stoltezza
Carmen Ste. Torero And/Und Carmen: Lento - Tempo I.
Carmen Ste. Adagio: Andante Moderato - Adagio
Carmen Ste. Fortune-Telling: Andantino - Andante Assai
Carmen Ste. Finale: Allegro - Tempo Precedente - Andante Assai
Con, 'Naughty Limericks': Allegro Assai
Con, 'The Chimes': Ca. 3/4nt=60/3/8nt=120/3/8nt=76/3/8nt=120/1/8nt=100-152 -Tempo I.

Amazon.com

Shchedrin's Carmen Ballet, a hit in the 1960s, still amuses, delights, entertains, and, for some, enrages. It's full of Bizet's great melodies, but instead of a fancy-dress version of great hits from Carmen, Shchedrin's reorchestration features extravagant percussion effects and fascinating original variations. So it's a truly original work in the long line of parody pieces central to 20th century music, including the reworking of Baroque music by Stravinsky, Respighi, and others. Pletnev and his fine orchestra play the daylights out of it, and the engineers make the most of its "hi-fi spectacular" potential. Arthur Fiedler, the Boston Pops, and RCA's "Living Stereo" engineers did it even better back in 1968, but this version can't fail to please. The Concertos for Orchestra are welcome fillers. The first, subtitled "Naughty Limericks," sounds like music to accompany a riotous cartoon. The second, "Chimes," is made of sterner stuff, with some dazzling trumpet and percussion passages in its middle section and an extended finale for bells and a dark-textured orchestra. This is one of those discs you can't go wrong with. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews:

Why is Carmen so polite?.......2005-09-24

When you are beaten out as a conductor by Arthur Fiedler, you're in trouble. That's what happens here to Pletnev, never one of my favorites, but in the Carmen Ballet he is particularly fussy and uninvolving. Fiedler didn't exactly catch fire in this piece, but the engineers at rCA gave him a sonic spectacular, and the conducting is good enough to carry the work with some excitment, unlike what one hears on this CD.

New Twist on an Old Favorite, with Delightful Extras.......2001-08-31

Russian composer Rodion Shchedrinýs Carmen Suite, after Bizet, is very familiar music indeed, but somehow slightly askew. This sometimes odd rhythmic reinterpretation and reorchestration (with much more percussion than Bizet used) was premiered as a ballet in 1967 in Moscow. Like so much music of that time and place, it was immediately banned; the grounds were that it was ýan insult to Bizetýs masterpiece and for its sexual treatment of the character of Carmen.ý Only through the intervention of Dmitri Shostakovich, no stranger to vagaries of Soviet critics himself, was the ban eventually lifted. Although Shchedrin, like Shostakovich (who was some 26 years his senior) struggled with the issues of artistic and personal freedom within the Soviet system, he eventually had great success. He succeeded Shostakovich as chairman of the Composers Union of the Russian Federation in 1973, and received both the USSR State Prize for Music and later the State Prize of the New Democratic Russia.

Perhaps the listener can read into the dichotomies of the finale Shchedrinýs conflicts between his personal desires and his public demands. But much of the piece is simply an exuberant and thrilling reinterpretation of Bizet--not only Carmen, but other bits of Bizet creep in, notably a length selection from LýArlesienne. All of it is recast in the light of a twentieth century sensibility regarding orchestration and style, somewhat more conservatively than his contemporary Alfred Schnittke. At times Shchedrin turns Bizet jazzy, and he always colors the music with brilliant writing for a vastly expanded percussion section. I find the result extremely enjoyable, and certainly the performance by the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Mikhail Pletnev, is very good. The tone quality of the strings is rich and full, intonation impeccable, and the ensemble (with a very few minor exceptions) demonstrates a rhythmic precision that should be the envy of any group.

In addition to the Carmen Suite, the listener is also given the first two of Shchedrinýs four (to date) Concerti for Orchestra. The first of these, subtitled Naughty Limericks, has an immediately apparent jazz influence, with the pizzicato walking bass, the use of glissandi, and the jazzy drums. Iým also greatly reminded of Stravinsky, especially his ýCircusý music. The CD notes tell us that the translation of the title, Naughty Limericks, is insufficient to give the full meaning of the original Russian, which carries a connotation of political satire and ridicule.

These two Concerti are a rather different conception of the form than the original Concerto for Orchestra by Bela Bartok. Whereas Bartokýs idea is a grand lengthy multi-movement vision, Shchedrinýs is almost insubstantial by comparison, at least in terms of length. Both are single movement pieces, and the longest of the two (his Second Concerto for Orchestra, subtitled ýThe Chimesý) is only 10 minutes long. This work, the last on the CD, is by far the most adventurous and difficult. Many listeners may want to skip that track, but I find it fascinating. Although dissonant, it is full of color and drama, with rhythmic energy reminiscent of the primitivist works of Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Listeners familiar with the works of Alfred Schnittke will also notice similarities to those pieces. But no one should be put off by the inclusion of this work on the disc--if contemporary music ordinarily makes you want to cover your ears, simply consider listening to it an option that you might not want to exercise. Certainly most regular concertgoers will be delighted with the other two works.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Missing Pieces

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2; Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet

mission blues [Explicit Lyrics]

Jim Hall & Basses

Trafalgar [Import]

Quick Hit Compilation [Explicit Lyrics]

Passion Flower

Mozart: Serenades Nos. 11 & 12

Songs We Wish We'd Written

Now I Know

Pyramid Song [CD-single] [Import]

Presidents of the United States of America 2

Roc Ya Body Mic Check 1, 2 [CD-single] [Enhanced]

The Early Years

Mambo 2000