Milhaud, Le boeuf sur le toit, op.58

"Le boeuf sur le toit" by French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) combines various melodies from Brazil: tangos, maxixes, sambas and the Portuguese fado. These had haunted Milhaud ever since his stay in Brazil. Subtitled "Cinéma-Fantaisie" and dedicated to Charlie Chaplin, the work was premiered in Paris in 1919 with a pantomime libretto by Jean Cocteau. In 1976, Leonard Bernstein included this work on his two programs of predominantly French music with the Orchestre National de France - a stimulating blend of celebrated repertoire works as well as lesser known masterpieces from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Reviewing one of the concerts, David Stevens, the critic of the International Herald Tribune, wrote on 4 November 1976: "There are precious few conductors who can so completely identify themselves with the works of certain composers and at the same time occupy themselves with extracting total cooperation from such willful bodies of humanity as, say, a French orchestra. The miracle duly took place¿"