Symphony No. 12 (Milhaud) Explained

The Symphony No. 12, Op. 390, subtitled La Rurale, is a work for orchestra by French composer Darius Milhaud. The piece was written in 1961 for the dedication of the concert hall at the University of California, Davis, a campus historically focused on agricultural studies.^[1]

Milhaud's Twelfth Symphony is a four-movement work with a total running time of about 16 minutes. The titles of the movements, as descriptive of their character as of tempo, are as follows:

1. Pastoral (approx. 3'45")
2. Vif et gai (approx. 3'13")
3. Paisible (approx. 3'45")
4. Lumineux (approx. 5'00")

This symphony is published by Heugel & Cie. Recordings of this symphony include a 1995 all-digital recording by Alun Francis and the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Basel, part of a boxed set of Milhaud's Symphonies No. 1–12 on CPO.

External links

• Video - Darius Milhaud - Symphony No. 12 (1 of 2) (07:09).
• Video - Darius Milhaud - Symphony No. 12 (2 of 2) (09:08).

Notes and References

1. Schulz. Reinhard. Darius Milhaud Symphonies 10-12. CPO, 1996. 9–10. CD liner notes.