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Darius Milhaud originally envisioned his "Le Boeuf sur le toit" (The Ox on the Roof) as a score to one of Charlie Chaplin's films. Instead, Milhaud's friend Jean Cocteau turned it into a surrealist ballet (while retaining the zanyness of Chaplin). Tonight we'll hear the composer's arrangement for violin and piano (which he called the "Cinéma-Fantaisie") from Gidon Kremer and Oleg Maisenberg, respectively.

We'll also mark the anniversary of four important premieres tonight: William Christie leads Les Arts Florissants in a snippet from Handel's "Messiah" (1741); Samuel Barber's Third Essay for Orchestra (1978) is heard from the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. Later in the evening, the Bamberg Symphony brings us Anton Bruckner's "Missa Solemnis" (1854), followed by Richard Danielpour's Cello Concerto (1994) with its dedicatee, Yo-Yo Ma. And for one final anniversary, a birthday nod to Joseph Haydn's kid brother (and fellow composer) Johann Michael; Matthias Bamert leads the London Mozart Players in the Symphony in E-flat.