Films about Composers

Occasionally I get asked if there is a film about a particular composer. There are a lot of feature films and TV documentaries and I have just built a page on my 52composers website on the subject.
The two British directors Ken Russell and Tony Palmer have been prolific with this genre.
Some, notably those by Tony Palmer, are incredibly well researched and true to the facts. Others have varying proportions of fantasy.
Yale University has published a book 'Composers in the Movies' by Prof.John C.Tibbetts and with a forward by Simon Callow. I haven't seen it yet but it looks interesting.

Vivien Noakes 1937 - 2011) - biographer of Edward Lear

I was very sorry to learn of the death of Vivien Noakes, the leading expert on the life and works of Edward Lear, king of nonsense and the limerick.
She wrote his definitive biography and curated the 1985 Lear exhibition at the Royal Academy.
There is a very good obituary in the Guardian.

Some years ago I started an Edward Lear website www.edward-lear.com which I have neglected. I really must get back to it.

Great Composer Anniversaries for March

March Great Classical Composer Anniversaries

?/03/1706 Pachelbel died 1/03/1810 Chopin born 2/03/1824 Smetana born 4/03/1678 Vivaldi born 5/03/1953 Prokofiev died 6/03/1932 Sousa died 7/03/1875 Ravel born 8/03/1566 Gesualdo born 8/03/1803 Berlioz died 8/03/ 1983 Walton died 16/03/1736 Pergolesi died 18/03/1844 Rimsky-Korsakov born 21/03/1685 J S Bach born 21/03/1839 Mussorgsky born 22/03/1687 Lully born 25/03/1881 Bartok born 25/03/1918 Debussy died 26/03/1827 Beethoven died 28/03/1881 Mussorgsky died 28/03/1943 Rachmaninoff died 29/03/1902 Walton born 31/03/1732 Haydn born