Perhaps the most striking aspect of the musical oeuvre of Darius Milhaud is its sheer breadth: he composed for just about every imaginable combination of Western instruments and his sometimes transgressive attitudes toward musical tradition and stylistic boundaries produce works in which feigned Baroque elegance might be juxtaposed with crass jazz send-ups. In this regard, Milhaud's Suite for violin, clarinet, and piano stands as a prime example. Relying, somewhat ironically, on the concept of the traditional instrumental suite, with its multiple movements of contrasting topics or moods, Milhaud elaborates on several distinct musical ideas and draws on his wide-ranging stylistic interests along the way. The first movement, bearing the title "Ouverture," immediately establishes a piquant Latin feel (reflecting, as do other of his pieces, the influence of Milhaud's two years' residence in Brazil several years earlier). The strong, underlying syncopation is punctuated by aggressive articulations such as rolled chords in the piano and strident bowings on the violin. After a contrasting central section in a more lyrical vein, the bold gestures and syncopations from the beginning return to round out the movement. The second movement, "Divertissement," utilizes intricate and playful imitative textures, as well as Milhaud's signature polytonal techniques. The violin and clarinet begin with an imitative duet largely based on a single rising and falling motif; after their initial duet, they alternate in gentle duets with the piano before playing in tandem in a "call and response" fashion. The piano then steps into the foreground and recalls the imitative passage from the opening, while the violin and clarinet assume a deliberately unidiomatic accompanimental role. In the spirit of its title, "Jeu" (French for play), the third movement is a boisterous folk dance based on a hearty and relentless rhythm. Featuring the clarinet and violin, the movement is an exercise in caricature; on the one hand, the violin happily juxtaposes with gritty foreground fiddling (complete with squealing attacks and intonational inflections) against the clarinet's secondary line; on the other, one hears folksy strumming behind the clarinet's lead melody. The fourth movement, "Introduction et final," begins with a somber introductory passage held in check by the intermittent tolling of a repeated octave in the lowest register of the piano. Listeners familiar with the introduction of Milhaud's ballet La création du monde will recognize that this kind of melodramatic pall is simply a foil for the lighthearted music to follow, and indeed, the slow introduction soon cedes to the bright melody, square phrases, and easy pace of the finale proper. The lucidity and regularity of this last section, of course, is occasionally thrown slightly off kilter with odd harmonic swerves and the kind of so-called "wrong-note" polytonal writing for which Milhaud is famous, finally culminating in a kind of jazzy cowboy tune that brings the movement and the suite to a close.

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