The “choreographic scenes” Les Noces (The Wedding) could be regarded as a sort of sequel to Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. It follows the same primitivistic line of the most groundbreaking work of the 20th century, but it took the composer more than a decade to get it together, and in the end used an entirely different collection of musicians to bring his ideas to fruition. Instead of a large instrumental work we have a pared-down chamber ensemble with vocalists and a choir plus four pianos and percussion. It started a whole new musical language as to its timbre and employment of time, which was seen in many of Stravinsky’s later works, and copied by numerous lesser composers. (For example, compare Orff’s Carmina Burana to Les Noces!)
The three works on this SACD are not frequently performed, and it is fortunate to have them in such thrilling versions and excellent hi-res surround as found here. Stravinsky assembled Les Noces from various vernacular wedding songs of the Russian peasants, which had been translated into French. He originally was going to use an electrically-powered pianola, a harmonium and a pair of Hungarian cimbaloms. (To me, that would have been an even more exciting sound than the four pianos.) But considerations of greater ease in performance eventually dictated modification to 4 pianos and percussion. The confrontations between the vocal lines of the work and the violent interjections of the pianos and percussion is most dramatic. The translations of the works are included in the note booklet. Les Noces moves thru sections on the bride, the groom, the bride’s departure, and the wedding feast. Even without following the libretto, the ancient and timeless nature of the ritual comes thru clearly.
Stravinsky’s Mass was inspired by Mozart’s masses, and was intended for actual use in Orthodox church services, being liturgical and without ornamentation. Parts of it sound like practice for the composer’s Symphony of Psalms, to come later. The rather austere Cantata of 1952 was written after Stravinsky became enthralled with Schoenberg’s serial compositional approach, but serialism is only strictly used in one section, with the rest of the work quite polyphonic and even tonal. Even the serial section runs the process thru Stravinsky’s unique compositional language and sounds as personal as, say, Berg’s use of the approach in his works.
– John Sunier
