The explanation behind the opus number is that this is a work Milhaud fashioned from music he wrote for a film on Paul Gauguin some eight years earlier. Scored here for wind quintet, this is one of the composer's more serious works in this instrumentation, despite the Divertissement title. The first of the three movements begins with a typical unadorned melody on flute but soon we are off into new territories of tonality. The ill-tempered central movement is only briefly interrupted by some chorale-like music of quiet repose before returning to some see-saw rhythms and a 5-octave C at the end. The final movement returns to the mood of the first and all instruments appears to be in agreement as they stride to the finish that ends with a triumphant chord.

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