Milhaud's Ox
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Darius Milhaud originally envisioned his "Le Boeuf sur le toit" (The Ox on the Roof) as a score to one of Charlie Chaplin's films. Instead, Milhaud's friend Jean Cocteau turned it into a surrealist ballet (while retaining the zanyness of Chaplin). It also provided the perfect name for a bar where Cocteau and his cronies could hang out in Paris. We'll hear it tonight from the London Symphony Orchestra under conductor Antal Dorati.
We'll also explore the sonorities of strings in Ralph Vaughan Williams's first big hit, the "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis." Williams was studying with Ravel at the time, and recast Tallis's motet for various choirs of string instruments, to beautiful effect. Some real impressionism comes our way with Debussy's "Dances Sacred and Profane" from harpist Yolanda Kondonassis; also, Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto (Lang Lang soloing) and Haydn's String Quartet in F, Op. 77 with the Franz Schubert Quartet.
We'll also explore the sonorities of strings in Ralph Vaughan Williams's first big hit, the "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis." Williams was studying with Ravel at the time, and recast Tallis's motet for various choirs of string instruments, to beautiful effect. Some real impressionism comes our way with Debussy's "Dances Sacred and Profane" from harpist Yolanda Kondonassis; also, Mendelssohn's First Piano Concerto (Lang Lang soloing) and Haydn's String Quartet in F, Op. 77 with the Franz Schubert Quartet.
