Schubert's Bicentenary

8 June is Robert Schumann's 200th birthday.
Happy Birthday Robert. I bet they will be having a great party up there!
What a pity he died so early at the age of 46.

Yesterday, Sunday, was Schumann Day on BBC Radio 3. There was a series of programmes throughout the day. You can listen to them for another 6 days on BBC iplayer. Here is the programme.

June anniversaries of classical composers

• 1/06/1804 Glinka born
• 2/06/1857 Elgar born
• 3/06/1875 Bizet died
• 3/06/1899 Strauss J. died
• 6/06/1903 Khachaturian born
• 8/06/1810 Schumann bicentenary
• 21/06/1908 Rimsky Korsakov died
• 10/06/1934 Delius died
• 11/06/1864 Strauss R. born
• 15/06/1843 Grieg born
• 17/06/1818 Gounod born
• 17/06/1882 Stravinsky born
• 20/06/1819 Offenbach born

You can see a comprehensive listing of composer anniversaries at the Classical Composer Database

Happy Birthday Elgar - Goodbye Elgar banknote

Today is Elgar's 153rd birthday.
I see that the £20 banknote featuring the portrait of Elgar and Worcester cathedral will no longer be legal tender from the end of this month. See BBC report here.
The banknote was introduced in 1999.
It was controversially discontinued in 2007 - the year of his 150th anniversary.
Bad timing.
Elgar's image was replaced by that of Adam Smith, the Scottish economist.
Could it be because our Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time was Gordon Brown - a Scotsman.
I can't see the Scots putting the portrait of an English economist on their banknotes.