He finished the first two tableaux and then, due to problems with synchronisation with the pianola and the unavailability of two good cimbalom players, abandoned this version.

The staged version of The Wedding was performed in various locations as a real village wedding, the audience present as invitees to the wedding feast, sitting at long tables and eating and drinking while watching the feast unroll. Scherzo à la Russe, in a new arrangement by Louis Andriessen, was played as an overture and Stravinsky’s Soldiers Tale performed as entertainment for the guests.

After a long procedure, the Stravinsky heirs gave their permission and the exclusive rights to artistic director Peppie Wiersma for the performance of the 1919 version in the recently completed instrumentation by Theo Verbey and the arrangement of Scherzo a la Russe by Louis Andriessen. The World Premiere of this authorised 1919 version took place on August 15th 2009 in the recently opened Hermitage in Amsterdam.

In 1919 Igor Stravinsky started his second draft of Svadebka (Les Noces) in an instrumentation for an unusual scoring of pianola, 2 cimbaloms, harmonium and percussion.