# Anyone Hear Familiar Wth Darius Milhaud's Music?



## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

20th century French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was quite prolific. I'm curious to see if any of you well-versed, common sense thinking, musically balanced minded and morally upright folks  here at TC have any favourites and or dislikes of Milhaud's music. Chamber, concertos, symphonies, ballets, operas; anything? He wrote just about all genres of music.

I'm no experienced expert with his music. I'm asking because I am going through his piano concertos. Milhaud was no piano virtuoso, but these concertos were quite striking when I listened to them for the first time. He wrote at least five solo piano concertos and other combinations, including double piano concertos. I read his symphonies and string quartets are worth investigating. Who knows?

Your opinion, thank you.


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## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

His Clarinet sonata is fantastic. 
I have the record with Sabine Meyers.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I have his harp concerto, but so far it kind of is pretty and goes right past me. I heard that his piano concertos were good though.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Milhaud was one of Le Six, and maybe the least conventional of the bunch. He composed orchestral music besides his symphonies...


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

brianwalker said:


> His Clarinet sonata is fantastic.
> I have the record with Sabine Meyers.


Sabine Meyer is fantastic, too.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I heard Milhaud's _Scaramouche _ for saxophone and orchestra in a program this past spring. There's a little bit of debate what came first: Sax and piano, sax and orchestra, or 2 pianos? 
Whatever. It was my first known awareness of Milhaud and I was impressed.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Milhaud was one of Le Six, and maybe the least conventional of the bunch. He composed orchestral music besides his symphonies...


Yep. Poulenc's music I know reasonably well out of _Les Six_. But Milhaud (so far) was no Poulenc. "Bitonality" and jazz appeared to feature a lot in Milhaud's stuff that I have come across, which made his pieces rather interesting from this perspective.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

An interesting composer for sure, I like his music, it tends to be light but not lightweight. He does bear repeated listening for sure. Quite an innovator with polyrhythms and incorporating popular musics - eg. jazz, Latin American, French chansons - into his works. A contributor as well to music education, he taught many future "stars" including Iannis Xenakis and Dave Brubeck.

Favourite works so far -

_Scaramouche_ - a number of versions, I have it on 2 pianos, as well as soprano saxophone and orch. Fun work, very hummable, from Brazilian vibes to "three green bottles" song, which many of us still learnt as children.

_La Creation du Monde (Genesis)_ - pipped Gershwin's _Rhapsody in Blue _at the post by a year or so, first classical piece to have jazz in a substantial way. Hard to tell a bit the difference between this, maybe, and "real" jazz. Maybe not so spontaneous, but still heaps of fun, and being performed more now.

_Le Carnaval d'Aix for piano & orch._ - More a fantasy than a concerto, has some lovely moments, incl. a tango from Argentina, another country he visited.

_"Paris" suite for 4 pianos -_ Quite a gentle work if I remember it well, gives the vibe of various places in the city of light.

_Saudades do Brasil for orchestra _- Souvenirs from Brazil's capital, Rio de Janeiro. Portraits of places in the city. More a European's view of the place rather than the "genuine article" but he didn't claim that. Tries to avoid the impressionist "cliches," the polyrhythms - eg. more than one rhythm at once - is a trademark of his music, a dead giveaway not hard to pick up with him.

_Service Sacre (Jewish Sacred Service) for speaker, baritone, choir and orch. _- Quite a lyrical work, optimistic overall. I like the narrator's part, which can virtually apply to those of any faith, not only Jewish. An uplifting work aiming for unity after the fractures of the Second World War (he composed it after the war in the USA, his new home).

_Cello Concertos 1 & 2_- I have these on an ancient Supraphon vinyl. Mixing the popular song vibe - French chansons - with "serious" classical. But not much of this is too serious, and they're quite short, so basically good lighter listening.

_Le BOef sur le toit (Ox on the Roof) _- Quite a repetitive, kind of minimalistic work, it's a theme and variations type thing, but if I'm not in the right mood it can be a bit tedious. But a good work, not my favourite though right now.

An ancient thread yours truly made HERE about the Les Six group which Milhaud was part of.

Some of the recordings I have -


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Sid James said:


> _Cello Concertos 1 & 2_- I have these on an ancient Supraphon vinyl. Mixing the popular song vibe - French chansons - with "serious" classical. But not much of this is too serious, and they're quite short, so basically good lighter listening.


That sounds interesting. There are not many recordings of his cello concertos around. The cello concerto #1 has also been recorded by Mstislav Rostropovich.

Milhaud also wrote a clarinet concerto, viola concerto and violin concerto (all I have not heard). I also know none of his operas.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I have his piano concertos, his symphonies and a few of his stage pieces like La Creation, sur le beuf, and L'homme et Son Desir (which is kind of a creepy piece). I love the piano concertos! Not sure how I feel about the symphonies as a whole but they have their moments. I also have a few of his string quartets and those are really cool. They remind me of Ravel and Debussy's string quartets. I wish there was a complete set of these still in print. I don't know of any at the moment.

Actually, my composition teacher in school was a student of Milhaud and she talks about him all the time. He said he was crippled all the time from his health, but he was a fighter until the end and remained energetic and full of vitality even when he was in a wheelchair or using crutches.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

I had five or six Milhaud CDs at one time, before finally tiring of, then culling. Les Choephores (NYPO/Bernstein) is the only work that remains. I haven't been able to get through it on two or three listenings. Maybe it's time for another attempt.

I would like to explore his string quartets further. Unfortunately, the Parisii Quartet's 5CD set on naive is OOP. Maybe Brilliant Classics, Alto, or Naxos would like to license them for reissue?


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2012)

I personally like:
- Le boeuf sur le toit (1919) - which depicts events at a bar, and incorporates several lively Brazilian tunes (Sid - I think you should play this again, as your description is off ;-)).

- La création du monde (1923) - a short ballet based on an African creation myth. Milhaud incorporates various jazz and blues motifs here (as Sid notes, prior to Gershwin)

- Scaramouche for saxophone and orchestra (1937) - which also has a Brazilian flavor to it.

I'm a little less keen on Suite provençale (1936), and strongly dislike L' homme et son désir (1917), which is too modern for my tastes. I really haven't heard anything else (although I may check some stuff out based on this thread).

I find it interesting that Milhaud experimented with various styles - first modernism, then later jazz and latin, and maybe others. I can't say I love any of his works, but some of them are quite good.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

If you like band music, Milhaud made a really nice work called Suite Francaise:


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

violadude said:


> ...
> 
> Actually, my composition teacher in school was a student of Milhaud and she talks about him all the time. He said he was crippled all the time from his health, but he was a fighter until the end and remained energetic and full of vitality even when he was in a wheelchair or using crutches.


Yes, I am amazed how his music is quite optimistic overall, very energetic and elegant, yet he was as you say wheelchair bound for his last decades. It's a bit like the painter Matisse, you can't notice his personal pain. These guys were optimists, I admire them for that, because I don't know if in the same situation I'd be very optimistic like that.

About other works I was going to get, and may well get in future, it's THIS disc on Naxos of his piano music, incl. a work narrated by his widow, Madeleine Milhaud (she lived well past 100, a centenarian!). I love works with narration, and this would be good to get in due course...


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

yes, the Quatuor Paris recorded his complete 18 String quartets. The quartets are somewhat mixed French folk melody and moderate dissonance music. This are some of my very early collection of string quartets and haven't relisten to them for years. These quartets maybe interesting for those who keen to explore atonal/dissonance type of music.


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## Il_Penseroso (Nov 20, 2010)

Here Milhaud himself and Marcelle Meyer play Scaramouche, Suite for two pianos, lovely music and my favorite Milhaud work :

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwvQwfq1A3c


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I only really know "Scaramouche." Nothing else by him I am familiar with.


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## GoneBaroque (Jun 16, 2011)

I know and like "La création du monde" although I have b=not listened to it for a while. I will look up some of the other recommendations.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

violadude said:


> I have his piano concertos, his symphonies and a few of his stage pieces like La Creation, sur le beuf, and L'homme et Son Desir (which is kind of a creepy piece). I love the piano concertos! Not sure how I feel about the symphonies as a whole but they have their moments. I also have a few of his string quartets and those are really cool. They remind me of Ravel and Debussy's string quartets. I wish there was a complete set of these still in print. I don't know of any at the moment.


Cool!



violadude said:


> Actually, my composition teacher in school was a student of Milhaud and she talks about him all the time. He said he was crippled all the time from his health, but he was a fighter until the end and remained energetic and full of vitality even when he was in a wheelchair or using crutches.


Very interesting, thanks for sharing.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

BPS said:


> I personally like:
> - Le boeuf sur le toit (1919) - which depicts events at a bar, and incorporates several lively Brazilian tunes (Sid - I think you should play this again, as your description is off ;-)).
> 
> ...


It's okay but maybe a bit too repetitive for my taste. I wouldn't be surprised if it had influenced guys like Reich and Glass coming later in the piece. I will have to listen to it again, actually that EMI disc with Bernstein (& Milhaud himself) at the helm is a favourite of mine...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

"Chansons de Ronsard". Premiered in New York in 1941. These are four poems by Pierre de Ronsard set for soprano and orchestra. The singer on that occasion was Lily Pons. she later recorded them with her husband Andre Kostelanetz.
You should find them attractive.


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