FILE PHOTO: Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and member of the jury for the 68th Berlinale International Film Festival attends a news conference in Berlin, Germany, February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch/File Photo
TOKYO — Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto, known for his electronic music, including the score for “The Last Emperor,” on Monday finished streaming a concert that may be the last for the Academy-award winning composer, who is fighting stage 4 cancer. Sakamoto, 70, said in an online message in December that the unorthodox performance – broadcast to more than two dozen nations around the world – came about because he could no longer complete a regular concert.“My strength has really fallen, so a normal concert of about an hour to ninety minutes would be very difficult,” he said. “As a result, I’ve recorded it song by song and edited it together so it can be presented as a regular concert – which I believe can be pleasureable in the normal way.
The concert, which featured a Sakamoto solo on piano for 13 of the songs, included themes from “The Last Emperor” and “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,” in which he acted alongside David Bowie in addition to writing the score. It was streamed four times starting at noon on Dec. 11, with the last coming early on Monday morning in Japan.