The lattice-work pylon to the right of the sails of the goddess Iris, is actually an antenna, broadcasting an orchestral concert that each French household will receive thanks to their TSF (“wire-less”) set. 

Visuel de la fresque (détail)

The choir overlooks the orchestra, whose brass and woodwinds are arranged on the right with the percussion section and some of the strings. On the left the double bass, cello, violin and viola are grouped around the piano. In front two soloists, a woman and a man, are facing the audience as they sing their parts, while in the centre the conductor, back to the audience and baton in hand, leads the musicians. In all, there are more than thirty musicians and fifty singers. 

Dufy gives a different colouring to each instrument: red, pink, ochre, orange, yellow, violet, blue. With black lines he brings out the faces and hands of the rapidly sketched musicians. As for the large area of solid blue dominating from Olympus and punctuated by touches of colour, it tends to dissipate thanks to the yellow-white light that sweeps through the orchestra.

Visuel de la fresque (détail)

According to the press coverage of the time, the orchestra is performing Handel’s Messiah.  Born into a family of musicians, Dufy had already painted orchestra scenes in Le Havre in the manner of Degas in 1902, as well as members of his family. But starting with La Fée, in the 1940s in Perpignan, where he was in contact with famous musicians, he began to paint chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras and brass bands in bandstands, sometimes working in series and often adding a coloured tone: red, yellow, orange etc. He always enjoyed painting crowds: festivals, parades, races, ceremonies and so on. There are, too, his tributes to Bach, Mozart and Debussy, in which his association of a particular colour with the musical tone of the composer generates a synesthetic experience.