• Radio & Television

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

Radio

Adrian Thomas has made numerous interview contributions to radio in the UK and abroad since the mid-1970s. Most recently on BBC Radio he has discussed Górecki’s choral music and Fourth Symphony, the wartime piano duet of Lutosławski and Panufnik, the music of Szymanowski and the glories of the Polish Baroque, Lutosławski on CD, and Panufnik in his centenary year:

• 6 November 2011: Górecki’s choral music, The Choir (BBC Radio 3)
• 20 December 2011 (rep. 19 February 2012 on Radio 4 and again on 22 December 2012 on Radio 3): the wartime piano duet of Lutosławski and Panufnik, Warsaw Variations (a Falling Tree production by Alan Hall for BBC Radio 4)
• 11 February 2012: Szymanowski, Music Matters (BBC Radio 3)
• 26 February 2012: Polish Baroque music, The Early Music Show (BBC Radio 3) see Baroque Rocks
• 22 December 2012: Lutosławski on CD, CD Review (BBC Radio 3)
• 11 April 2014: Górecki’s Fourth Symphony, PM (BBC Radio 4)
• 20 April 2014: Górecki’s Fourth Symphony, Sounds Classical (BBC Radio Ulster)
• 27 September 2014: Panufnik, Music Matters (BBC Radio 3)
• 25-29 May 2015: Grażyna Bacewicz, Composer of the Week (BBC Radio 3)

He has also presented radio music programmes for Polish Radio as well as for radio stations in Cincinnati, Los Angeles and New York.  During his many encounters in the late 1970s as presenter of BBC Radio Ulster’s weekend arts programme he interviewed, among others, Berberian, Stockhausen and Stiff Little Fingers.

Among his presented programmes for BBC Radio 3 have been the opening live broadcast from Warsaw for the Polska! festival (19 November 1993), several sequences of ‘Composer of the Week’ (such as ‘Lutosławski’, ‘Polish Romantics’ and ‘Szymanowski’), as well as documentary features, including The Ecstasy Effect (on Szymanowski’s opera King Roger) for the BBC Proms (19 July 1998).

Television & Online

• with Harry Secombe on Highway, talking about Sir Hamilton Harty (ITV-LWT, 6 March 1988)
• Toonmeesters: Henryk Górecki (VPRO, Holland, 1994)
• live commentator for BBC Proms, talking about Debussy, Ravel, Szymanowski and Lutosławski (BBC4 TV, 31 July 2002)
• Errata do biografii: Andrzej Panufnik (Grzegorz Braun, Polish TV2, 2 December 2008)
• Sacred Music. Górecki and Pärt (Simon Broughton, BBC4 TV, 26 March 2010)
• Henryk Górecki (Violetta Rotter-Kozera, Polish TV, 11 November 2012)
• Trzej Kompozytorzy [Three Composers: Lutosławski, Penderecki, Górecki] (TVP Kultura, 6 December 2013)
• Szymanowski: Król Roger (live interval feature, Royal Opera House channel, London, and Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, 16 May 2015; subsequently available on ROH YouTube until mid-November 2015)