Edgard Varese's Deserts is a landmark work that had a great influence on the post-World War II generation of composers. Its premiere, on 2 December 1954, was one of those beaux scandales that make Paris Paris,1 but the public's jeering had serious consequences. As the live radio transmission of the performance was the first stereophonic broadcast in French radio history, radio executives were listening to it; the shouts that they heard of salaud and pendez-le! nearly caused the cancellation of funding for Pierre Schaeffer's studio of musique concrete where the taped portion of the piece was completed, and which was under the national radio's subsidy.2 Moreover, Varese was never reinvited to work in France.