I watched a clip of the original Jurassic Park film the other day. Such a clever premise, bringing the lumbering dinosaurs of the past back to life. I wish there was a sequel where Richard Attenborough found the DNA of some of the great composers and brought them back as well. The title would be Classic Park. Imagine Sam Neill pulling up in a jeep and gazing open-mouthed at Beethoven as he walked through the woods whistling the opening of his Symphony No. 10, or watching Mozart giggling in a café, writing his Symphony No. 42, or Schubert sitting at his desk working on what will become known as the Finished Symphony.

Photo © Ahtziri Lagarde/Unsplash

Except, of course, it wouldn’t be like that. They would be modern versions of themselves, released into the wild and searching out the nearest aristocrat for a commission, only to discover that the people with all the money now are corporations. Mozart would end up doing a gig at a dentists’ convention in Perth, Beethoven would play in a band at a Google head office event, while Schubert would perform in...