On 28 October 2022 Holger Falk’s new CD „Darius Milhaud: „Melodies et Chansons“ Vol. 1″ is released by mdg in the series of recordings of the song compositions of the „groupe des six“. At the piano: Steffen Schleiermacher.

Darius Milhaud’s song oeuvre is enormous. Small chansons stand next to extensive cycles, highly artificial music next to songs for theatre productions. He preferred Paul Claudel, Léo Latil, Jean Cocteau, Paul Verlaine, Jules Supervielle and Stephan Mallarmé as text sources. But Rabindranath Tagore, James Joyce or Rainer Maria Rilke also appear several times among the poets set to music and – surprisingly – also a catalogue for agricultural machinery or a flower advertisement…

„I am a Frenchman from Provence and a Jew by religion“, is how Darius Milhaud begins his extremely readable autobiography „Notes without Music“.

He never denied either his origins in Provence or his Jewish faith, not even in his music. Many compositions seem to breathe directly the atmosphere of Provence and to shine in its light, which indeed attracted generations of painters. Often, Milhaud’s music is indeed filled with inner serenity.