A portrait of the composer Darius Milhaud.
Christopher Palmer traces the life and music of a prolific composer, whose music ranges from the South American colour of Le Boeuf sur le Toit to the jazz-inspired ballet La
Création du Monde, and from a song-cycle about agricultural machinery to epic operas like Christophe Colomb. There are also 12 symphonies and 18 string quartets.
He grew up in Aix, went to Brazil with poet
Paul Claudel , spent the firebrand years of the 1920s in Paris as one of "Les Six", and, on the outbreak of the Second World War, went to
America, where Mills
College, California, became his second home.
Including an interview with Milhaud's widow
Madeleine, BBC archive recordings of Milhaud talking, and readings from his autobiography, as well as musical extracts.