Gyorgy Ligeti’s Poeme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes is rarely performed, but not because it questions the very nature of music, or that it sounds like hail on a tin roof, or let’s see, 100 divided by four, that’d be 25 horses galloping, and the final kernels of popcorn popping.

It comes down to logistics and aesthetics. How does one artfully set off 100 tightly-wound metronomes? And then what? Choreographer Allyson Green’s solution was practical and almost magical.

With a gentle flick of hands, her cast of dancers set the old wooden machines in motion in La Jolla Symphony & Chorus’s weekend concert at Mandeville. As ears strained to hear the last metronomes tick into silence, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, The Wedding, began.

Village women swirled a single braid of hair and moved with syncopated kicks, accented with unexpected stops and sharp hands crossed in front. They weaved through lines of young men who tried to block their way.

Stoic parents of the bride and groom shared bread and sprinkled salt. Briseida Lopez of the Tijuana dance troupe Lux Boreal was excellent as the reluctant bride. She frolicked with her girlfriends and shook her head no as her parents stood unmoved. She struggled with the female matchmaker, a rather sinister gal who covered the bride’s eyes with her hands. Those familiar with Lux Boreal would recognize the imposing matchmaker as the bride’s real life sister, Azalea Lopez. (The village patriarch was their dad).

There is a rich family history and a long list of artists attached to Les Noces(pronounced Lay Nohs). It was originally choreographed in 1923 by Bronislava Nijinska (sister of the famed Vaslav Nijinsky who choreographed The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky). There are many versions by artists such as Jerome Robbins and Maurice Bejart, and one can view several on YouTube.

Musically, Les Noces is incredibly complex and hard to count. It calls for four vocalists, four pianos, and percussionists (for this program, red fish blue fish). Fortunately Green has a musical background and has traveled through Eastern Europe and Russia. In program notes, she says she let Stravinsky’s haunting melodies and driving rhythms guide the dance movement. She also borrowed ideas from Mexican folklorico.

Like Nijinska’s version, Green’s bride wept, because that is tradition, something brides are supposed to do. Aside from the slow rituals such as rolling out fabric and lining up the in-laws, the piece was quite engaging. Her version was more joyful and expressive than Nijinska’s and more focused on the communal aspects of a wedding. Women did not respond with fists to their foreheads. They wore a single braid, but there was hardly a suggestion that braiding represented a loss of virginity.

Green did keep the most striking pose. She had the women form the iconic pyramid of heads and braids, a symbol of the single family unit after marriage. The “who’s who” of local dance was on stage and in the audience, much like you’d find at a real wedding. Costumes, by Alina Bokovikova and Erick Sundquist, were black and white with red sashes. The pleasing peasant styles were brighter than the drab garments of the original. There were also no pointe shoes.

Stravinsky’s lyrics suggest explicit images: Cruel, heartless came the matchmaker, pitiless cruel one, pitiless cruel one. She tore my tresses... It all sounded strangely Asian. And while soprano Jessica Aszodi rocked the building, one could hear just bits and pieces so the affect was a bit like being in a crowded reception room.

Stravinsky composed Les Noces as a ballet, “a sort of scenic ceremony.” Clearly, it was meant to be seen, not just heard. In the first half, David Lang’s Grind to a Halt was an angry response to a close friend’s death that was meant to hurt.As with Les Noces, Steven Schick directed. He drove Lang’s sonic assault with a lead foot, until you wanted to scream out, “I feel your pain David!” Lang wanted to conjure a lasting image of a runaway engine with bows pumping like pistons. Mission accomplished.