French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) owes his ballet "La création du
monde" (The Creation of the World) above all to the jazz music he had
heard in the United States in 1922. It was first performed in Paris in
1923 with decors and costumes by the artist Fernand Léger. 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¿"
