Rodion Shchedrin wrote his transcription of Bizet's Carmen Suite for his wife, prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who wanted to create a Carmen ballet. He called it “An arrangement of Bizet’s CARMEN for strings and percussion”.
The composer by his own admission, limited the orchestra to strings and percussion for two reasons: the strings compensate for the lack of human voices, and the percussion instruments underscore the choreography. The link to the actual album version is Igor Ponomarenko, an inspired alto Domra player and graduate from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, arranged/based on the model of Shchedrin's percussion-driven transformation - a very special reading of the Carmen Suite for his 'Double Duet' MA.GR.IG.AL.
Ponomarenko’s arrangement of Bizet-Shchedrin’s “Carmen Suite” balances elegantly on the borderline. On one side, there are the indisputable elements of buffoonery, eccentricity, even a harmless hooliganism. But they are appropriate, since in many ways they obey the rules of the game, oriented on surprise and a lively theatrical response. On the other side, Ponomarenko’s deep love and admiration for CARMEN are obvious. His artistic conception in many ways is based on a game of refuting everyday ideas, and CARMEN is a solid artistic and elegant step in this direction.
