Stravinsky’s Les Noces

Saturday, February 7, 2026 | 7 PM
Houghton Chapel, Wellesley College

The Program

Stravinsky’s Les Noces
Noah Horn, Music Director

Originally conceived as a ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Stravinsky’s Les Noces (The Wedding) evolved into a fiercely original concert work for vocal soloists, chorus, four pianos, and percussion. Using Russian folk texts and propulsive, percussive writing, Stravinsky paints a vivid picture of a peasant wedding—complete with ritual, anxiety, celebration, and social expectation.

Far from sentimental, Les Noces is bold and raw, collapsing the boundary between folk tradition and modernist experimentation. Stravinsky considered it one of his most important works, and it remains a thrilling and rarely performed gem of the choral repertoire.

Alongside Les Noces, the program features Garth Neustadter’s Memory of Water, a luminous meditation on the cyclical nature of time, memory, and renewal. Through shimmering harmonies and evocative textures, Neustadter invites listeners to reflect on the ways water carries both history and possibility—an elemental counterpart to Stravinsky’s ritualistic vision.

What’s Interesting About This Concert

  • A Ballet Without Dancers: Les Noces began its life as a ballet—and though this performance is not staged, the music itself is so rhythmically driven and theatrically vivid that it almost moves on its own. The score tells the story through sheer sound, with voices and percussion acting like dancers in their own right.

  • Striking, Unusual Forces: With four pianists, multiple percussionists, and a chorus constantly in motion, Les Noces pushes the boundaries of what a choral work can be. Its sound world is bracing and electric, unlike anything else in the repertoire.

  • Folk Texts, Modern Voice: Though based on traditional Russian wedding poetry, the piece feels modern and urgent—highlighting the collective nature of marriage, the pressures of tradition, and the ecstatic chaos of communal life. It’s a ritual as imagined by one of the 20th century’s most daring musical minds.

  • Approximately 90 minutes. There will be no intermission.

  • Attendees should park in the Founders Lot located next to the Chapel (enter through College Drive).

    Map to Founders Lot

  • Wear what makes you feel comfortable!