Bernstein conducts Milhaud's La création du monde and Le Bœuf sur le toit

The incomparable 20th Century American maestro Leonard Bernstein leads the prestigious Orchestre National de France in La création du monde and Le boeuf sur le toit, two vibrant and spirited ballets by Darius Milhaud inspired his travels in the Americas. This archival footage was captured at two concerts at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs Élysées in November 1976.

While still a young man, French composer Darius Milhaud left his native continent to journey through Latin America and the United States. Greatly inspired by what he saw and heard, he soon expressed his experiences through music. La création du monde, premiered in 1923 with choreography by Jean Börlin draws on an African myth and Harlem jazz. Le boeuf sur le toit is colored by the exuberant and lithe rhythms of Brazilian dance and popular music.