All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

That said, I’ve got but a few hours in which to play music to mark the presumed anniversary today of the birth of the great William Shakespeare.

We’ll hear works inspired by a number of Shakespeare’s plays, including a “scenario” assembled from William Walton’s magnificent score for Laurence Olivier’s acclaimed film adaptation of “Henry V.” The speaker will be none other than Christopher Plummer.

Today’s Noontime Concert will serve as prologue, with the Rolston String Quartet coming your way from the Church of the Holy Trinity, Rittenhouse Square, in Center City Philadelphia. The program, presented by Astral Artists, will include works by Mozart (the String Quartet No. 18 in A major, K. 464), Ligeti (the Quartet No. 1, “Metamorphoses nocturnes”), and Beethoven (the Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130).

… [M]ay we cram
Within this wooden “O” the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon!

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.