• Pre-Concert Talks

See also under Workshops & Seminars

‘an excellent talk by Adrian Thomas’ – Gavin Dixon, theartsdesk.com (4 October 2015)

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From May 2016 Adrian Thomas is taking indefinite leave from public speaking engagements in order to concentrate on non-musical projects.

These include talks for the BBC PO, BBC Scottish SO, BBC SO, Bournemouth SO, London PO, London SO, Ulster Orchestra, Polish Radio Singers, the South Bank’s International Piano series, the Wigmore Hall, the St Magnus Festival, the Presteigne Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

• ‘Lutosławski’s Partita-Interlude-Chain 2‘, pre-concert talk, London SO, Barbican Hall, London (5 May 2000)
• ‘Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin‘, pre-concert talk, London SO, conducted by Pierre Boulez, Barbican Hall, London (16 October 2002)
• ‘Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, Szymanowski Violin Concerto no.1, Webern Six Pieces op.10, Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin‘, pre-concert talk, London SO, conducted by Pierre Boulez, Barbican Hall, London (17 October 2002)
• ‘Karłowicz and his ‘Rebirth’ Symphony’, pre-concert talk, BBC PO conducted by Gian-Andrea Noseda, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (11 October 2003)
• ‘Szymanowski’, pre-concert seminar, Piotr Anderszewski (piano), Wigmore Hall, London (15 June 2005)
• ‘Echoes of Poland’, pre-concert talk on Chopin’s mazurkas, Cédric Tiberghien (piano), Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (19 January 2010)
• ‘Szymanowski’s Chamber Music’, pre-concert talk, Piotr Anderszewski (piano), Henning Kraggerud (violin), Iwona Sobotka (soprano) and Belcea Quartet, Wigmore Hall, London (5 May 2010)
• ‘Chopin as Symbol’, pre-festival talk, St Magnus Festival, Kirkwall, Orkney (19 June 2010)
• ‘Górecki’, pre-concert talks, Polish Radio Choir, conducted by Artur Sędzielarz, Durham Cathedral (5 November 2011), Kings Place, London (6 November 2011), St George’s, Bristol (7 November 2011)
• ‘Muzyka Polska’, pre-concert talk, BBC Scottish SO, City Halls, Glasgow (11 October 2012)
• ‘Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto’, pre-concert discussion with Johannes Moser and Tom Hutchinson, Bournemouth SO, Poole Lighthouse, Poole (23 January 2013)
• ‘Górecki and his Fourth Symphony’, pre-concert talk, LPO premiere of the Fourth Symphony, Royal Festival Hall (12 April 2014)
• ‘Three Generations of Polish Composers’, festival talk, Presteigne Festival, Titley (26 August 2014)
• ‘Szymanowski’s King Roger‘, pre-performance talks, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London (1, 9, 12, 16, 19 May 2015)
• ‘Henryk Górecki: Polish Pioneer’, opening event of BBC SO ‘Total Immersion’ day on Górecki, Barbican, London (3 October 2015)

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Pre-Concert Interviews

These include public interviews with the composers Witold Lutosławski, above (his last public interview in the UK, BBC Proms, 1993), Henryk Mikołaj Górecki (Barcelona, 1995), Krzysztof Penderecki (London SO, 1999; Belfast, 2000), Steven Stucky (BBC Proms, 2006) and Paweł Łukaszewski, Stephen McNeff and Maciej Zieliński (Presteigne Festival, 2014).