An illustrated informal talk by Joanna MacGregor exploring the music of the BPO's Revolution concert, featuring Beethoven and Jimi Hendrix.
Joanna MacGregor is taking the stage at Brighton Unitarian Church on Thursday 22 April 2027 for the BPO Listening Club's Revolutionaries, a session that puts Beethoven and Jimi Hendrix in the same room. It's an illustrated informal talk, so you're not just sitting and listening — there'll be visuals to go along with what she's talking about, and the whole thing is built around the music of the BPO's Revolution concert.
The Listening Club is a series of one-hour sessions led by MacGregor that dive deeper into the music of the BPO's season. The idea is to illuminate and entertain, and each one is designed to uncover the composers' intentions, the social context they were writing in, and the musical motifs to listen out for when the works are performed. So, rather than just hearing the music, you get the story behind it and a few things to keep an ear out for when you eventually see the concert.
This particular session brings together two figures who couldn't seem further apart — Beethoven, the titan of the classical tradition, and Jimi Hendrix, the man who tore up the rulebook for the electric guitar. Both are framed here as revolutionaries, and MacGregor's talk will be about the music of the Revolution concert, so it's a good way to get your bearings before the actual performance. If you're not sure where to start with either of them, or if you've heard them a thousand times and want to hear something new about how they fit together, this is exactly the kind of thing the club is for.
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It's a one-hour session, so it's a relatively easy commitment for a weekday evening. The talk starts at 6pm at Brighton Unitarian Church on New Road, BN1 1UF, and tickets are £10.
