John Coolidge Adams is an American composer and conductor. Among the most regularly performed composers of contemporary classical music, he is particularly noted for his operas, many of which center around historical events. Apart from opera, his oeuvre includes orchestral, concertante, vocal, choral, chamber, electroacoustic, and piano music.
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, is the UK's oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra. In addition to the orchestra, the organisation administers the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Company and other choirs and ensembles. It is involved in educational and community projects in Liverpool and its surrounding region. It is based in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, an Art Deco concert hall built in the late 1930s.
The Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in four movements, composed in 1903 and 1904, with revisions from 1906. It is sometimes nicknamed the Tragic ("Tragische"), though the origin of the name is unclear.
The Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1908 and 1909, and was the last symphony that he completed. A typical performance takes about 75 to 90 minutes. A survey of conductors voted Mahler's Symphony No. 9 the fourth greatest symphony of all time in a ballot conducted by BBC Music Magazine in 2016. As in the case of his earlier Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler did not live to see his Symphony No. 9 performed.
Peter Racine Fricker was an English composer, among the first to establish his career entirely after the Second World War. He lived in the US for the last thirty years of his life. Fricker wrote over 160 works in all the main genres excepting opera. He was a descendant of the French playwright Racine.
The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool.
Carl Davis was an American-born British conductor and composer. He wrote music for more than 100 television programmes (notably the landmark ITV series The World At War and BBC's Pride and Prejudice, created new scores for concert and cinema performances of vintage silent movies and composed many film, ballet and concert scores that were performed worldwide, including the Liverpool Oratorio in 1991. Davis's publisher was Faber Music.
Sir Julius Benedict was a German-born composer and conductor, resident in England for most of his career.
Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No. 2, Sz. 112, BB 117 was written in 1937–38. During the composer's life, it was known simply as his Violin Concerto. His other violin concerto, Violin Concerto No. 1, Sz. 36, BB 48a, was written in the years 1907–1908, but only published in 1956, after the composer's death, as "Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. posth."
Standing Stone is Paul McCartney's second full-length release of original classical music, although he defined it as orchestral music. It was issued shortly after the release of Flaming Pie. The world premiere performance was held at The Royal Albert Hall on 14 October 1997.
Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F♯ minor, Op. 1, in 1891, at age 17–18. He dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work thoroughly in 1917.
Jerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa, Susannah, and Candide. Hadley was a leading American tenor for nearly two decades. He was mentored by soprano Joan Sutherland and her husband, conductor Richard Bonynge. Leonard Bernstein chose Hadley for his 1989 recording of Candide on Deutsche Grammophon. Aside from singing opera and operetta, Hadley also sang on Broadway.
Andante festivo, JS 34a–b, is a single-movement chamber work for two violins, viola, and cello written in 1922 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In 1938, the composer arranged the piece for string orchestra and timpani. On 1 January 1939, Sibelius conducted this version of Andante festivo during a live, worldwide broadcast, making it the only sound document of him interpreting his own music.
"The Back Seat of My Car" is a song written by Paul McCartney, released as the closing track of his and his wife Linda's 1971 album, Ram. Several months later, it was released as a single in the UK, peaking at number 39. The song modulates stylistically between a sweeping piano-and-orchestra ballad similar to McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road" and upbeat rock sections before ending in a raucous and passionate finale.
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, is an orchestral suite in three movements completed in October 1940 by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is his final major composition, and his only piece written in its entirety while living in the United States.
Henry Kimball Hadley was an American composer and conductor.
The Liverpool Summer Pops is a summer music event in Liverpool. Now being branded as "Liverpool Summer Pops Festival", the event features performances by bands and artists in one venue over consecutive nights, as well as some events in other 'fringe' venues.
The Beatles Concerto is an instrumental musical medley of tunes from songs by The Beatles for two pianos and orchestra, arranged and composed by John Rutter within a classical "Piano Concerto Form".
Czech composer Josef Suk's Second Symphony, named "Asrael", was completed in 1906 following the deaths first of his father-in-law, in 1904, and then of his wife. Inevitably mournful but also vital in nature, the five-movement, hour-long work is cast in C minor and scored in Straussian vein for large orchestra. It was published as Opus 27. The composer had married Otilie Dvořáková, daughter of his composition teacher, Antonín Dvořák.
Joseph Young is an American orchestra conductor.
