Join Us Wishing Our Managing Director A Very Happy 60th Birthday!!

Chris Caspell, 60 not out. Away from taxing matters, music is an important part of his life – as a viola-player, conductor, and entrepreneur. He also sings, mostly in church choirs, and, like Fred Astaire, can dance a little and when his unmissable moustache twirls a Tango with distinction. Thirty-odd years ago Chris and two other gentlemen conceived Classical Source. It continues to this day, enlightening its readers, with Chris serving as Managing Director and techie, batting for the site’s cause. Happy Birthday !!!!!
Thank-you Chris for remaining at the wicket, despite some googlies along the way, and a very happy birthday to you. – Colin Anderson

Some messages from a few of our reviewers.

“Congratulations to Chris on his 60th birthday. His personal and financial support of Classical Source has ensured that it has made a substantial contribution to the world of classical music and dance.
I look forward to working with him over the coming years as the site develops and further improves the service it offers to the world’s classical music community”. – Rob Pennock

“Chris, I send my warmest wishes to you on your sixtieth birthday. Your tireless efforts to maintain and sustain The Classical Source over the years are deeply appreciated, as is the guidance you have provided to me on numerous occasions. Happy Birthday!”  – David Rice

“Wishing you a fabulous significant birthday. We may be living through an age of uncertainty in so many ways but now is not the time to underestimate the achievements, nor the  joy and support you have given to others over the years. Take care and all the very best.” – David Gutman

“Happy Birthday! Wishing you a truly wonderful day and every happiness in the year ahead. Your passion and commitment to sharing classical music with so many people is inspiring, and I hope this year brings you continued success, good health, and many reasons to celebrate. Have a fantastic birthday!” – Lisa Stone-Ford

“Very best wishes on your milestone, and for taking Classical Source through to its next phase”. – Curtis Rogers

“Happy 60th Chris!

I can well remember meeting you with Colin at the launch, and look back in amazement at the coverage Classical Source has amassed.  What an archive of particularly London concert life. Thank you for your enthusiasm and your commitment. Long may it continue!” – Nick Breckenfield

“ ‘Once you marry music, she is your forever lasting love’

~ Piazzolla ~

When print magazines were on the down and e-zines on the up Chris Caspell co-founded Classical Source. In 1999, in his words ‘at the height of the dot-com boom, the year Napster appeared, BlackBerrys were everywhere, and the internet felt full of possibility’. With Len Mullinger’s  MusicWeb International (1995) and Basil Ramsey/Keith Bramich’s Music & Vision (1999), Classical Source, independently, without arts funding, institutional backing or a paywall, spearheaded the UK initiative, Bachtrack (2008) and The Arts Desk (2009) only following later. Online platforms were initially approached with caution. Were they really to be taken seriously? Could they replace traditional practice? Yes said Chris, prophetically. He attracted good writers, lay and professional, giving them a free hand to voice diverse opinions and in-depth thought. There was also a bonus. Length was not an issue. And there was no restriction on the number of concerts or CDs to review. Overnight we were returned to a climate we’d long since thought gone. An era of post-war dailies when Wigmore newcomers, not just Rubinstein or Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic at the Festival Hall, would get reviewed in the Telegraph, when insightful argument was to be found in the Sunday broadsheets. Once the arts lost their newsworthy standing, once column inches started to get reduced – when you had to ensure that the first paragraph of anything you phoned in said everything necessary because most likely a sub would blue pencil through the rest – flagged an ominous changing of the guard. Countering the hour, expansion before contraction,  Classical Source was a shot in the arm. Performers, promoters and agents enthused. The Proms, London orchestras and concert venues lent their support.

The news last February that all was to be disbanded came out of the blue. At its height this was a site which had hosted up to three reviews daily with 18,000 Twitter followers. 59,492 page views, with 46.3% returning visitors, was reported in March 2017. Yet, Chris wrote, ‘we now manage only a handful each month. Readership has inevitably declined, and the site is slowly fading away. That is not a fitting end to something that achieved so much, with so little, for so long’. Reviewers, friends and public agreed. By April plans to preserve its legacy and relaunch sent a good-feel vibe.

I came on board in October 2015. Exciting times. In the Editorial hands of Colin Anderson, a seasoned practitioner, I found a sympathetic supporter, willing to hint from the sidelines, passing on skills of the craft I should probably have learnt earlier through BBC freelancing back in the Listener/Radio Times sixties. His non-invasive positivity was a breath of fresh air. He allowed me my style and space. Chris has long been a stalwart, hands-on friend to Colin, something that first struck me with the compassionate help he extended in 2019-20, and then during and since the Covid pandemic. Colin launched his own Colin’s Column site in 2020. In 2023 the passing of Kevin Rogers, a chemistry teacher at the City of London School for Boys who in 2007 joined Classical Source as its media-savvy Deputy Editor, impacted on everyone. 

Critics lead many lives. Chris isn’t a music professional, but, a committed influencer in Britain’s musical arena post 9/11, he’s someone with an intense passion for his muse. Concerts and recordings,  whatever their shade or genre, are his for the hunting and cherishing. Pragmatic and focussed, may he remain a guiding star.

Happy Sixtieth Chris.” – Ateş Orga