BBC Concert Orchestra

Inspired by the sounds of Brazil, Le boeuf was originally to have been the score of a silent Charlie Chaplin film. Its transformation to the stage rocked the Establishment and catapulted Milhaud to stardom. The setting is a fictional American bar frequented by a number of characters, including a bookmaker, a dwarf, a boxer, a cross-dressing woman and a policeman.

Commissioned by Sergey Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, Les biches pushed Poulenc into fashionable circles when he was just 24. He described the work as a "contemporary drawing room party suffused with an atmosphere of wantonness, which you sense if you are corrupted, but of which an innocent-minded girl would not be conscious".

Programme
Milhaud Le boeuf sur le toit, Op. 58
Poulenc Les biches - suite

To download full details and programme notes click here

Recording on Wednesday 9 December at the Colosseum, Watford. Doors open at 6.30pm.

Tickets are free and are available now
To apply for tickets, visit theBBC Tickets Website or call the BBC Ticket Line on 0370 901 1227*.

Other dates for your diary:
Discovering Music: Ferde Grofé
Wednesday 13 January, 7pm
Charles Hazlewood conductor

Discovering Music: Liszt
Thursday 28 January, 7pm
Keith Lockhart conductor
Piers Lane piano

New Generation Artists
Thursday 11 February, 7pm
Mathew Coorey conductor
Daniela Lehner mezzo-soprano
Mahan Esfahani harpsichord

Tickets are free and are available from six weeks in advance of the concert date.
To apply for tickets, visit theBBC Tickets Website or call the BBC Ticket Line on 0370 901 1227*.

To download full details and programme notes click here

*UK-wide rate charged at no more than 01/02 geographic numbers: calls may be recorded for training.