In 1967, Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin composed his one-act ballet, Carmen Suite, for his wife, ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. The music, taken from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet and arranged for strings and percussion, is not a 19th century pastiche but rather "a creative meeting of the minds", as Shchedrin put it, with Bizet"s melodies reclothed in a variety of fresh instrumental colors (including the frequent use of percussion), set to new rhythms and often phrased with a great deal of sly wit. Initially banned by the Soviet hierarchy as "disrespectful" to the opera for precisely these qualities, the ballet has since become Shchedrin"s best-known work and has remained popular in the West. This recording has been mastered by the K2 HD format of 24-bit 100kHz, which creates an unbelievable sound surpassing other formats! This K2 HD Mastering CD will play on all CD players!