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Best of the Spectator

Spectator Out Loud: James MacMillan, Sebastian Morello, Amy Wilentz, Sam Leith and Lloyd Evans

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 4 January 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: composer James MacMillan reads his diary on the beautiful music of football (01:11); Sebastian Morello tells us about the deep connection between hunting and Christianity (07:17); Amy Wilentz explains how Vodou fuels Haiti’s gang culture (16:14); The Spectator’s literary editor Sam Leith reviews The Virago Book of Friendship (22:38); and – from the arts pages – The Spectator’s theatre critic Lloyd Evans writes about a new play on the last days of Liz Truss and also about Bette and Joan, which includes 'brutal' and 'brilliant' portraits of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford (26:37).

Presented by Oscar Edmondson.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

If you enjoyed the Spectator's podcasts, why not subscribe to the magazine as well?

0:04.2

You can get 12 weeks of The Spectator for just £12, plus a free £20 £10,000 or weight raise voucher.

0:10.6

If you go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:14.7

This is a podcast-only deal, and we hope you take us up on it.

0:28.3

Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud,

0:31.4

where each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their authors to read them aloud.

0:33.8

I'm Oscar Edmondson, head of podcasts at The Spectator.

0:36.8

This week, composer James McMillan reads his diary on the beautiful music of football.

0:41.8

Sebastian Morello tells us about the deep connection between hunting and Christianity.

0:46.6

Amy Valenz explains how voodoo fuels Haiti's gang culture.

0:50.9

The Spectator's literary editor, Sam Leith, reviews the Varago Book of Friendship, and from the arts pages, the spectator's theatre critic Lloyd Evans, writes about a new play on the last days of Liz Truss and also about Betty and Joan, which he says includes brutal and brilliant portraits of Betty Davis and Joan Crawford.

1:09.7

Up first, James McMillan. I was in Sweden a few weeks ago,

1:14.0

where my music was presented in Stockholm in the most recent international composer festival.

1:20.5

One of the orchestral works performed was my football-themed 11. 11 players, melodies of 11 notes, chords of 11 pitches,

1:31.3

and various football chants woven into the fabric of the score.

1:36.3

I'm not the first composer obsessed with the beautiful game.

1:40.3

Bohuslav Martinus Half Time, written in 1924, was inspired by the supporters of his team,

1:48.8

Sparta Prague. And more recently, there have been bold examples by English composers, Mark Anthony

1:55.9

Turnage, who worked chance for his beloved arsenal into his orchestral piece momentum,

2:02.8

and Benedict Mason, in whose opera playing away, even the ball sings an aria.

2:09.6

But the most sustained composerly football obsession is found in the work of Dmitri Shostakovich,

2:16.4

who was a qualified referee. He wrote two overtly

...

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