Category Archives: News

On this day – Darius Milhaud: La Création du Monde

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by Ben Hogwood

On this day, 22 June 1974, your editor arrived in the world…but I have just discovered for the first time that on the same day we lost the composer Darius Milhaud.

With Milhaud’s 50th anniversary falling next year it would seem to be a good time to reappraise his output, for he has dropped off the radar rather when it comes to concert programming. This is a shame – because if you listen to one of his most popular works, La Création du Monde, you will see just how well he integrates jazz into his style, and how full of melody his writing is. Listen and enjoy!

Depeche Mode – Are People Good?

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Tonight I am seeing Depeche Mode live for the first time. Excitement is building, especially given the quality of their new album Memento Mori – though we will of course miss the presence of keyboard player ‘Fletch’, who sadly passed away in May 2022.

The most recent Depeche Mode to be played on the radio has been People Are Good, a fine new single that has a ring of Kraftwerk’s Computer Love about it. It is effectively a considered update to one of the band’s best singles from 1984:

People Are Good seems to be impressing a more thoughtful approach on people…but is there a lyrical sting in its tale?

As for tonight, I will report back – firstly via a gig review for musicOMH, then a considered response for these pages.

Happy weekend!

Ben

The Coronation album – buy the music from the service

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The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla may only have been yesterday at Westminster Abbey, but you can already purchase the music thanks to Decca.

The official album includes all the pre-ceremonial music, featuring Sir Bryn Terfel and Roderick Williams, and also the 12 new, specially commissioned works from Andrew Lloyd Webber, Patrick Doyle, Iain Farrington, Sarah Class, Nigel Hess, Paul Mealor, Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik, Shirley J Thompson, Judith Weir, Roderick Williams and Debbie Wiseman.

For more details, head to the Decca website

Out today…Emily Howard’s Torus

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Emily Howard‘s new album, Torus – as reviewed on Arcana – is released today.

When I spoke to Emily about the piece itself back in 2018, she said, “When I created Torus, I imagined I was on the surface of the shape, travelling around and around in one direction, and encountering different landscapes as I went. Around 14 minutes into the work, there is a significant shift and a complete change of musical soundworld, and this is where I had instead imagined a rotation in the other direction. So considering mathematical shapes in this way does help me to define musical shapes and structure in my compositions”.

You can explore buying options for Torus at the NMC website, and watch a short video about it below:

In appreciation – Ryuichi Sakamoto

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This was the image posted on Ryuichi Sakamoto‘s Twitter account earlier today, confirming the sad news many had been dreading – the Japanese composer and instrumentalist had sadly died of cancer, aged 71.

Sakamoto’s career began in the Yellow Magic Orchestra, whose drummer Yukihiro Takahashi passed away only three months previously. He then went on to a long and illustrious career that included numerous memorable collaborations, solo albums and film scores.

Yet a single tribute would seem to sum him up best at this point, before a full appreciation. Here is the composer himself at the piano, playing one of his most enduring and emotional pieces: