This account of Les noces marks the recording debut of the complete work in its 1919 instrumentation that was supposedly abandoned out of logistical concerns. Certainly, the scoring for two cimbaloms, pianola and harmonium (rather than four pianos) ostensibly reflects the composer’s aesthetic during a period of great experimentation. Along with Colin Matthews’s completion of the first two tableaux, Mathieu Romano opts for Theo Verbey’s 2008 realisation of the rest for a Paris production as choreographed by Dominique Brun. The coordination with solo and ensemble voices is undeniable but an unduly forward balance means the instrumental aspect has been drawn into the overall texture (harmonium especially) so it becomes more an accompaniment to than an equivalent of what is being sung. Nor does the unpitched percussion have much of a role until the fourth tableau, its function in accentuating the prosody and articulating the formal trajectory often minimal. The result is often engrossing, without altering the conviction that Stravinsky’s final scoring was the right one.

Robin Melchior’s transcription of Ravel’s Boléro is superbly rendered here, even if its vocal component often sounds redolent of the Swingle Singers in their heyday, and, once again, a forward balance leaves little room for even a token likeness to the original’s textural fastidiousness or its defining crescendo. Heard away from Brun’s choreography, moreover, this seems little more than a novelty.

At the start is an alluring rendition of the one folk song Stravinsky included, while the booklet features extensive notes along with stills of the production. It would be good to have a further recording to see how far this 1919 Les noces is capable of (whisper it quietly!) interpretation.