Poulenc: Les biches - Dutilleux: Le loup - Milhaud: La création du monde

Georges Prêtre and Francis Poulenc: two major figures of French music who esteemed each other highly, the composer asserting Prêtre was the best performer of his music, the conductor proclaiming Poulenc was his favorite composer. In this recording, Prêtre highlights three French ballets including Les biches, choreographed by Nijinsky’s sister Bronisława with costumes by Marie Laurencin (who also drew the illustration for the ballet, pictured on the artwork).

Dutilleux’s Le loup is a youth ballet commissioned by Roland Petit which the composer long refused to be performed on record, apart from the symphonic fragments conducted by Prêtre, that reveals his amazing talents as an orchestrator. The album is completed by Milhaud’s La création du monde, whose primitivism and jazzy notes caused a scandal when premiered in 1923.