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Front Row: Víkingur Ólafsson, David Greig, El Presidente, Inclusive publishing

05/06/2020

Víkingur Ólafsson, David Greig, El Presidente, Inclusive publishing

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Víkingur Ólafsson, David Greig, El Presidente, Inclusive publishing

Víkingur Ólafsson performs Bach. Plus David Greig's new play.

Víkingur Ólafsson performs live as Front Row’s Lockdown Artist in Residence. David Greig on his new play and theatre in crisis.

Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson continues his weekly live performances from the empty Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, as Front Row’s Lockdown Artist in Residence. Tonight Víkingur plays his own transcription of J.S Bach’s cantata Widerstehe doch der Sünde, BWV 54. 

David Greig talks about his new play Adventures With The Painted People -  a first century romcom between a Pict and a Roman - which was to have opened Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s summer season, and has now been adapted for Radio 3, as part of the BBC's Culture in Quarantine project.

For our Friday review, we watch El Presidente- a new Amazon Prime comedy drama about the FIFA corruption scandal, scripted by Birdman writer Armando Bó.  And Lily King’s novel Writers and Lovers comes with accolades from Elizabeth Strout and Tessa Hadley.  What will critics Carl Anka and Alex Clark make of its consideration of grief, love, writing... and waitressing?

Following the death of George Floyd there’s been a dramatic increase in sales of books which help explain structural racism. Knights Of - a small publisher specialising in titles tackling prejudice - was facing financial crisis due to the Coronavirus, but now a crowdfunding appeal to help publishers like them has smashed its £100 000 target. Knights Of’s co-founder, Aimee Felone, on publishing during the pandemic and the Inclusive Indies fundraising campaign.

Presenter: John Wilson
Producer: Timothy Prosser

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