Classicalite's Five Best: Characters, Then and Now, for Whom Classical Music Was a Passion...Not Just Sherlock!

With the triumphant return of the BBC's Sherlock to our screens, following his supposed death at Reichenbach, the series everyone is talking about prompts another thought for classical fans.

It is an ongoing characteristic of Arthur Conan Doyle's books about his great detective, that Holmes is passionate, if not hugely accomplished, about the violin, which took pride of place alongside recreational drugs and mentally sparring with Dr. Watson.

And classical music has held a special place for other perhaps surprising, and unlike Sherlock non-fictional, figures.

Here, then, Classicalite's Five Best...

Albert Einstein

Einstein, like Holmes, loved his violin and would on occasion even give concerts in later life. When asked what if all of his ideas about ordered structure in the universe were wrong, what if everything was just chance and coincidence, he replied, "God would not be that unmusical."

President Richard Nixon

"Tricky Dickie" was deeply in love with classical music and harbored ambitions to conduct a symphony orchestra. Eugene Ormandy was a favorite of his and, as a 2011 piece in The Atlantic pointed out, "several already-released tapes of Nixon phone conversations feature classical music blaring in the background at rock 'n' roll volume."

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