Two Superb Milhaud Scores from Abravanel

The recent post of Maurice Abravanel conducing the Utah Symphony in music of Roy Harris was a popular one, not least because it brought some worthy although unfamiliar music to light.

Today's item amounts to a repeat of that formula - although with very different music from a French rather than American composer.

Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) is the author of the two works on the program. The first - a remarkable work - is his Suite symphonique No. 2 drawn from the incidental music for Paul Claudel's play Protée. The second, only a bit less impressive, is Les Songes, the score from a 1933 ballet by George Balanchine.

That two such fascinating compositions could be almost unknown is a testament to changing tastes in music and to Milhaud's prolificacy as a writer.

Paul Claudel and Darius Milhaud

Critic Richard Freed wrote that Protée "is one of the most substantial and appealing of the composer’s early works for orchestra. It was produced in 1919, when he was twenty-seven - the same year as the more familiar (and slighter) Le Boeuf sur le Toit and some four years before La Création du Monde." The first performance was reportedly the scene of a Sacre-style riot of the aesthetes, with the audience divided into those who thought Milhaud a genius and those who thought he was a dangerous radical.

More than 100 years later, the work seems to teem with invention, starting with the composer's use of Latin rhythms in Protée. Milhaud had been transfixed by the music of Brazil when he was stationed there as an aide to Claudel, who was diplomat as well as poet. The music is enchanting, and beautifully played and recorded by the Utah forces. There are many fascinating aspects to the music. One that struck me was how Milhaud uses both the Latin rhythm and the orchestration to evoke water, in way unlike Debussy's La Mer, although there are influences by the Impressionists and Stravinsky in the music.

From Les Songes

Freed wrote that Les Songes "is of lighter texture, more intimately scored, and a bit less adventurous than the lustily extrovert Protée, but again highly attractive in its melodic abundance, rhythmic contrasts, and intriguing colors." 

Balanchine had prepared Les Songes for the new Parisian company he had formed with Boris Kochno, Les Ballets 1933. Les Songes had book, scenery and costumes by the artist André Derain. The Balanchine Foundation's description: "Exhausted after a triumphant performance, the ballerina [Tamara Toumanova in the premiere] falls asleep and is assailed by nightmares and visions. The fragrance of flowers brings an intimation of loveliness; she awakens reassured to find herself in her own room."

On the same program as Les Songes was the premiere of the Brecht-Weill The Seven Deadly Sins with Lotte Lenya and Tilly Losch. Quite a night.

Maurice Abravanel

Abravanel had unique authority in this music, having conducted the first performance. Freed went further, saying, "There is probably no conductor alive who brings more authority and affection to the music of Milhaud than Maurice Abravanel."

To my knowledge, this 1978 recording has not been reissued, nor has the score of Protée been re-recorded. It is currently available only in Pierre Monteux's San Francisco version from the 1940s. The Abravanel appears to be the only recording of Les Songes in its orchestral form.

A final word from Freed: "For most listeners, both works are likely to be 'discoveries' and both are very happy ones indeed, especially as presented on this beautifully recorded disc." Still true, 47 years later.

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Darius Milhaud in 1924