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Les noces
The Wedding, or Svadebka (Russian: Свадебка), is a Russian-language ballet-cantata by Igor Stravinsky scored unusually for four vocal soloists, chorus, percussion and four pianos. Dedicating the work to impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer described it in French as "choreographed Russian scenes with singing and music" [sic], and it remains known by its French name of Les noces despite being Russian.
The Wedding was completed in 1917 but was then subjected to a series of changes of heart by Stravinsky regarding its scoring; he settled on the above forces only in 1923, in time for the premiere in Paris on 13 June that year under conductor Ernest Ansermet and danced by the Ballets Russes to choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. Several versions of the score have been performed over the years, substituting an orchestra for the percussion and pianos or using pianolas in accordance with a version Stravinsky abandoned.
Stravinsky conceived of The Wedding in 1913. By October 1917 he had completed it in short score to a libretto he himself had written using Russian wedding lyrics taken mainly from songs collected by Pyotr Kireevsky and published in 1911.
During this long gestation its orchestration changed dramatically. Stravinsky at first planned to use forces similar to those of The Rite of Spring. A later idea was to use synchronised roll-operated instruments, including the pianola; this he abandoned when partially completed because the Paris firm of Pleyel et Cie was late in constructing the two-keyboard cimbaloms, later known as luthéals, he required.
Stravinsky settled only in 1923, six years after his short score, on the following forces: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass vocal soloists; mixed chorus; unpitched percussion; and pitched percussion, notably four pianos. The decision exemplified his growing penchant for stripped down, clear and mechanistic sound-groups in the decade after The Rite (although he was never again to produce such an extreme sonic effect solely with percussion).
He reminisced in 1962: "When I first played The Wedding to Diaghilev … he wept and said it was the most beautiful and most purely Russian creation of our [ballet company]. I think he did love The Wedding more than any other work of mine. That is why it is dedicated to him."
The ballet-cantata has four scenes performed without a break:
The work was premiered on 13 June 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. The instrumental ensemble of four pianos and percussion was conducted by Ernest Ansermet. The work is usually performed in Russian or French; English translations are sometimes used, and Stravinsky used the English one on the recordings he conducted for Columbia Records in 1934 and 1959.
Les noces
The Wedding, or Svadebka (Russian: Свадебка), is a Russian-language ballet-cantata by Igor Stravinsky scored unusually for four vocal soloists, chorus, percussion and four pianos. Dedicating the work to impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer described it in French as "choreographed Russian scenes with singing and music" [sic], and it remains known by its French name of Les noces despite being Russian.
The Wedding was completed in 1917 but was then subjected to a series of changes of heart by Stravinsky regarding its scoring; he settled on the above forces only in 1923, in time for the premiere in Paris on 13 June that year under conductor Ernest Ansermet and danced by the Ballets Russes to choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. Several versions of the score have been performed over the years, substituting an orchestra for the percussion and pianos or using pianolas in accordance with a version Stravinsky abandoned.
Stravinsky conceived of The Wedding in 1913. By October 1917 he had completed it in short score to a libretto he himself had written using Russian wedding lyrics taken mainly from songs collected by Pyotr Kireevsky and published in 1911.
During this long gestation its orchestration changed dramatically. Stravinsky at first planned to use forces similar to those of The Rite of Spring. A later idea was to use synchronised roll-operated instruments, including the pianola; this he abandoned when partially completed because the Paris firm of Pleyel et Cie was late in constructing the two-keyboard cimbaloms, later known as luthéals, he required.
Stravinsky settled only in 1923, six years after his short score, on the following forces: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass vocal soloists; mixed chorus; unpitched percussion; and pitched percussion, notably four pianos. The decision exemplified his growing penchant for stripped down, clear and mechanistic sound-groups in the decade after The Rite (although he was never again to produce such an extreme sonic effect solely with percussion).
He reminisced in 1962: "When I first played The Wedding to Diaghilev … he wept and said it was the most beautiful and most purely Russian creation of our [ballet company]. I think he did love The Wedding more than any other work of mine. That is why it is dedicated to him."
The ballet-cantata has four scenes performed without a break:
The work was premiered on 13 June 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska. The instrumental ensemble of four pianos and percussion was conducted by Ernest Ansermet. The work is usually performed in Russian or French; English translations are sometimes used, and Stravinsky used the English one on the recordings he conducted for Columbia Records in 1934 and 1959.