The two collaborative ballets from the 1920s, L’eventail de Jeanne and Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel, are available in performances by Geoffrey Simon and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Chandos 8356, recorded 1984). L’eventail de Jeanne was written in 1927 as a ballet for the young pupils of patron Jeanne Dubost. Each of L’eventail’s ten movements is by a different composer, including three […]
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Ballets – La création du monde
La création du monde, the 1923 jazz ballet for eighteen instruments (originally performed with sets by Fernand Léger) is, of all Milhaud’s works, the one with the firmest footing in the repertoire. Of the numerous available recordings the oldest is a 1932 performance conducted by the composer (Pearl Gemm CD 9459). Needless to say, this […]
Continue ReadingBallets – L’homme et son désir
L’homme et son désir was composed in Brazil in 1917-18, during Milhaud’s tenure as secretary to Paul Claudel. Inspired by the tropical surroundings, and by a visit from Nijinsky, it has a steamy, almost hallucinatory quality, enhanced by the vocalises of Claudel’s “poème plastique” for vocal quartet. The first of Milhaud’s ballets, L’homme et son désir marked the […]
Continue ReadingLe Boeuf sur le toit
Milhaud’s great early ballet, Le boeuf sur le toit (1919, scenario by Cocteau), is one of his most protean pieces, with different dissonances and rhythms emerging in each recording. On a Leonard Bernstein recording with the Orchestre National de France (EMI CDC-7 47845 2), the sound is very sleek and glitzy, like a good pops orchestra or Broadway […]
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