A couple of years ago, The New Yorker published a cartoon by Joe Dator that truly catches the spirit of our times.
In the single panel, a pregnant woman undergoing an ultrasound exam looks befuddledly at a face on the ultrasound monitor screen. The mouth of the woman giving the exam is slightly open, as though in mid-speech. The cartoon’s caption reads, “Oh, don’t worry. That’s Benedict Cumberbatch. He’s in everything.” View the cartoon here.
If you’re a fan of Sherlock, or if you’ve seen The Imitation Game, Atonement, Amazing Grace or any number of series, films or plays produced in the last decade, you know the actor really is everywhere in the world of theater.
And now he’s in the classical music world, too.
Cumberbatch is a close childhood friend of the British concert pianist James Rhodes and also a great lover of classical music. The lads got together (with a camera crew from British newspaper The Guardian) for a couple of chats about why they love music. The results, released in a series called Piano Night, are fun viewing.
In the first of these talks, Rhodes and Cumberbatch talk about what Cumberbatch loves about classical music and why Rhodes thinks Chopin is “the greatest.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hICIuhjzmKc
In Part 2, Cumberbatch and Rhodes both play Debussy, and James Rhodes reveals what he has tattooed on his left arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=553ZHoMwBic
Don’t miss James Rhodes playing Chopin at 10 a.m. Sunday on Classical 101.
