Asheville Symphony: MASTERWORKS 5 Carmen

Darko Butorac, conductor

Lissie Shanahan, flute
Rebekah Hou, harp

Many 20th-century composers were approached to reinvent Bizet’s Carmen as a ballet, but only Shchedrin accepted the challenge; instead of struggling to outshine the legendary opera, he embraced Bizet’s work and re-formed it into a modern, percussion-centric ballet suite. The suite is written for strings, vibraphone, temple blocks, castanets, tam-tams, and more to bring the beloved melodies of Carmen to life in unexpected ways with daring ingenuity. Paired with the Carmen Suite is Montgomery’s Strum!; drawing on American folk idioms and inspired by the spirit of dance, Strum! begins with a fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration. Rounding out the program is Mozart’s Parisian concerto for the unique and delightful pairing of flute and harp.