Liverpool Philharmonic : Classic Intros : Get more from the music

Get more from the music

Our free pre-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

2011/12 Season

Saturday 9 June 6pm
Composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies discusses his new Ninth Symphony.

2012/13 Season

Wednesday 12 September 6.15pm
Dance Historian Dr Giannandrea Poesio, reader in Dance at University of Bedfordshire and dance critic for The Spectator, focuses on the cultural and artistic contexts that informed and underpinned the creation of Stravinsky’s Firebird – with particular attention to the choreography of Vaslav Nijinsky.

Saturday 27 October
Conductor Carl Davis in discussion about the film Ben-Hur, the most expensive Hollywood production of its time, with Patrick Stanbury and Kevin Brownlow from PhotoPlay, the company who restored the film.

Thursday 17 January 6.15pm
Stephen Johnson talks about tonight’s programme which includes the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony. 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 21 February 6.15pm
Dr Giles Hooper, Head of School at University of Liverpool’s School of Music, discusses Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Giles has wide-ranging research interests including twentieth-century music, critical theory and analysis. He is particularly interested in inter- or crossdisciplinary approaches that seek to interpret different repertoires of music – classical, popular, film – from a range of critical perspectives; and also why different types of music tend to be valued differently and often appear to attract different audiences.

Thursday 21 March 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 10th Symphony.

Saturday 11 May 6.15pm
Stephen Johnson returns to talk about Bruckner’s Symphony No.6, one of the composer’s least-performed and most enigmatic works.

Thursday 23 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 1pm
Conductor Andrew Manze talks about the works in this afternoon’s concert which includes Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

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.