Liverpool Philharmonic : Classic Intros : Get more from the music

Get more from the music

Our free pre-concert Classic Intros and Off the Podium post-concert talks and interviews with visiting artists and scholars are a great way to get more from the performance. The talks are free to all ticket-holders.

A selection of Classic Intros are available to download and listen to again, so if you missed a talk visit our Listen Again page.

Upcoming Classic Intros

2012/13 Season

Friday 24 May 6.15pm
Paul Griffiths discusses Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Paul worked for thirty years as a music critic in London and New York. He is known particularly as a writer on new and recent music, his Modern Music and After, now in its third edition, being the standard work on music since 1945. He wrote the volume on Stravinsky for the Master Musicians series and has been commissioned by the Sacher Foundation to contribute to a centenary volume on The Rite of Spring.

Sunday 2 June 1.15pm
Conductor Andrew Manze talks about the works in this afternoon’s concert which includes Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

2013/14 Season

Saturday 14 September 6.15pm
The Royal Philharmonic Society, which is celebrating its two-hundredth birthday this year, gave the UK premiere of Brahms’ A German Requiem. Speakers tonight include social historian Dr. Leanne Langley and Tom Hutchinson from the RPS. They will explore the concept and role of a 'Philharmonic Society': What were the founding aims of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1813 and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, founded in 1840, and how have both organisations continued to support classical music through the centuries?

Sunday 24 November 1.15pm
Dr. Philip Reed, editor of Letters from a Life: The Letters of Benjamin Britten talks about the music of Britten. Dr. Reed was Musicologist at the Britten- Pears Library, Aldeburgh, for more than a decade, and is currently Head of Publications at English National Opera. He has been co-editor of all five previous volumes of Letters from a Life, and is now Editor-in-Chief of the series in succession to Donald Mitchell.

Saturday 30 November 6.15pm
Conductor and Artist in Residence Andrew Manze in conversation with Angela Heslop from BBC Radio Merseyside.

Thursday 16 January 6.15pm
Stephen Johnson talks about the music of Hindemith, Beethoven and Brahms. Stephen broadcasts frequently for BBC Radio 3, 4 and World Service and is the author of Bruckner Remembered and studies of Mahler and Wagner. He also presents BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music and is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine.

Thursday 27 February 6.15pm
Stephen Johnson talks about the music of Strauss, Panufnik and Rimsky-Korsakov. Stephen broadcasts frequently for BBC Radio 3, 4 and World Service and is the author of Bruckner Remembered and studies of Mahler and Wagner. He also presents BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music and is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine.

Thursday 10 April 6.15pm
Norman Lebrecht, one of the most widely-read commentators on music, culture and politics, regular presenter on BBC Radio 3 and author of Why Mahler? returns to Liverpool after his enthralling talk last year, to discuss Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Off the Podium: Post-concert Discussions

Off the Podium is a series of free informal post-concert Q&A sessions about music from the evening’s programme. This is your chance to ask questions of world-famous artists and hear their perspectives on the music. The events are free to all ticketholders and sessions begin 15 minutes after the concert ends in the Grand Foyer Bar. Discussions will last around 45 minutes.