Darius Milhaud

The symphonies date from a more mature period of Darius Milhaud compositional life and confronts the listener with music he or she probably didn't expect if one is familiar with the more bizarre, witty, early music with its many influences by light music, like Le Boeuf sur le Toit and La Creation du Monde. The sixth symphony of Milhaud is definitively his greatest. It contains two slow and two fast movements. The slow movements (2/3rd of the music) are of an astonishing beauty! This music of wide open spaces is full of calmness, austerity, clarity, with beautiful changing harmonies and slowly spiralling melodies. The fast movements make a lively contrast to this.

This is a nice little selection of the chamber music of Darius Milhaud featuring clarinet, violin, and piano in varying combinations, beginning with the brief Suite for all three instruments. There's a gentleness and wittiness in most of this music – although Milhaud could also be dolorous, for example in the introduction of the Suite's finale – primarily because he drew on themes from his stage music for the Suite, Scaramouche, and the Cinéma fantaisie d'après Le bœuf sur le toit, not to mention the presence of his trademark infectious Brazilian rhythms. The Violin Sonata No. 2 and the Clarinet Sonatina are slightly more serious in mood, and in the case of the Sonatina, more harmonically adventurous. The three musicians here – clarinetist Jean-Marc Fessard, violinist Frédéric Pélassy, and pianist Eliane Reyes – work excellently together to bring the music to life. Their ensemble work in the Suite is sharply precise. Even in the Sonata and Sonatina, there is a sense that it's not all just about the violin or clarinet. Pélassy and Fessard allow Reyes to bring out the piano part to show that the works are often more like true duets, for example in Scaramouche's dizzying opening or the Violin Sonata's Vif movement. The Fantaisie is a more of a duet almost by necessity because there's so much going on in it, but without a doubt it's the violin that gets the spotlight with some fancy effects (such as playing in two keys at once) and even a cadenza that's not in the original work. The three musicians also give detailed attention to coloring in a natural, instinctive-sounding way.

This programme of 1920s French music is in the hands of a conductor who gets right into the spirit of it, and plenty of spirit there is too. Apart from the Ibert, this is ballet music, and that work too originated as a theatre piece, having been incidental music for Eugene Labiche's farce The Italian Straw Hat. Poulenc's unfailingly fresh and bouncy suite from Les biches is very enjoyable although Chandos's warm and resonant recording takes some of the edge off the trumpet tone that is so central to the writing. The geniality of it all makes one forget that this is remarkable music in which (as Christopher Palmer's booklet essay points out) the twentieth-century French composer evokes eighteenth-century fetes galantes through the eyes of that greatest of nineteenth-century ballet composers, Tchaikovsky.

The very idea of undertaking Darius Milhaud: Complete Piano Concertos as a single unit is a daunting one, as Milhaud's work for the combination of piano and orchestra encompasses an extremely broad range of styles, from Milhaud's frothiest neo-Classical concoctions to his densest, most experimental vein. Conductor/composer Alun Francis, nonetheless, has scored with the comprehensive treatment as applied to Milhaud's variegated oeuvre ……

Uncle Dave Lewis @ AllMusic

This excellent collection of music by Darius Milhaud was issued for his centenary in 1992 and has some familiar and some not so familiar music. Le boeuf sur le toit (composed in 1917) is perhaps the composers most famous work and is a collection of melodies, tangos, sambas etc. that Milhaud heard while secretary to Paul Claudel, the Ambassador to Brazil. At one time Milhaud thought Le boeuf sur le toit might be good music for ……….The music is beautifully recorded.

David A. Wend @ Amazon.com

Many classical music listeners will be familiar with the name Darius Milhaud, but how familiar are they with his output? The owner of a bold, individual style, Milhaud was active for much of the 20th century, a modernist who is counted among the group of composers known as Les Six (a term coined by the music critic Henri Collet in 1920) and who was much influenced by jazz, polytonality as well as the sounds of Brazil. Bringing together many of his orchestral works, some of which are conducted by the composer himself, this release is the perfect starting-point for those wishing to become acquainted with his art.

Darius Milhaud evidently planned his musical career on a long-term basis. In 1920 he announced that he would write eighteen string quartets in his life, and he did so, completing his last quartet in 1951. Milhaud said that he did not plan on writing symphonies until 1942 (when he would be fifty years old), but that when a commission came in for a symphonic work to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he judged that he was ready, and accepted the commission. Symphony No. 1 was the result…….

The Quatuor Parisii was founded in 1981 by four Paris Conservatoire students, who played Milhaud's String Quartet No 4 in 1984 and promised Milhaud's widow Madeleine then that they would record all eighteen. They went on to win many prestigious competitions, remained together and completed this project last year. The performances are as good as you could reasonably expect (a few moments show a little strain) and are well recorded……

The Quatuor Parisii was founded in 1981 by four Paris Conservatoire students, who played Milhaud's String Quartet No 4 in 1984 and promised Milhaud's widow Madeleine then that they would record all eighteen. They went on to win many prestigious competitions, remained together and completed this project last year. The performances are as good as you could reasonably expect (a few moments show a little strain) and are well recorded……

The Quatuor Parisii was founded in 1981 by four Paris Conservatoire students, who played Milhaud's String Quartet No 4 in 1984 and promised Milhaud's widow Madeleine then that they would record all eighteen. They went on to win many prestigious competitions, remained together and completed this project last year. The performances are as good as you could reasonably expect (a few moments show a little strain) and are well recorded…..