Les Noces and Theo Verbey, by Jeppe Moulijn

“…Stravinsky’s next work, Svadebka (also known as Les Noces or The Wedding), may represent the most radical step in Stravinsky’s artistic career. But the search for a completely new, crystal-clear, and “detached” sound gave him a lot of headaches. In addition to the vocal parts, he considered various combinations of instruments. He contemplated using mechanical instruments such as the pianola (or player piano), but recoiled (rightly so) from the enormous practical challenges of coordinating singers with a machine. He also asked the Pleyel company to supply him with Luthéals— pianos with an extra mechanism for imitating the sound of the cimbalom, a Hungarian folk instrument. However, as is often the case, artistic vision ran into insurmountable practical problems. In the end, just three months before the premiere, Stravinsky settled on an ensemble consisting of four pianos and seven percussionists, together with a choir and four vocal soloists..”