Igor Stravinsky - Les Noces, Part 2 video

Les Noces, ballet in 4 tableaux for vocal soloists, chorus, 4 pianos & percussion (1923) Part 1 Scene 1: The Bride's Chamber Scene 2: At the Bridegroom's Scene 3: The Bride's Departure Part 2 Scene 4: The Wedding Feast Carolyn Sampson, soprano Susan Parry, alto Vsevolod Grivnov, tenor Maxim Mikhailov, bass RIAS Kammerchor musikFabrik Daniel Reuss Les noces has an important place in Stravinsky's ballet output: it is a pivotal work, marking the end of his Russian period, and also the beginning of his Neo-Classical period. Les noces comes after the three main Russian-period ballets -- The Firebird, Petroushka, and The Rite of Spring -- and is the obvious result of Stravinsky's years of involvement with Russian folk music idioms. While Les noces has fewer direct borrowings from the folk tradition than its predecessors, it is, as musicologist Richard Taruskin has noted, the work that is perhaps most Russian: Stravinsky, so familiar with Russian folk music by the second decade of the century, was able to create his own generic folk melodies without reference to source materials. The ballet is one of Stravinsky's hybrids, a "dance cantata" that combines dance with instrumental music and solo and choral singing. There is not really a plot to the ballet; instead, it is a series of scenes depicting the ritualized preparations for a Russian peasant wedding. Stravinsky himself wrote the text, drawing on Russian popular texts and songs for his words. The piece is constructed in two ...