THERE are some of us who remember those ghastly “music appreciation” classes of old.

In our case they were periods, late on Wednesdays, when we’d all troop into the music room and listen to allegedly worthy music, preserved on a scratchy vinyl disc.

For many, it was enough at age 11 to put us off music for life.

Sadly, the kind of pieces the music master would choose would be the masterpieces which comprised the latest programme from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, save for the energetic tone poem Don Juan by Richard Strauss. That would be too much to waken us from our mid-week stupor.

But Brahms’ Third Symphony and Schumann’s delightful A minor Piano Concerto were staple fare.

However, the RLPO’s performance under American conductor James Gaffigan, making his Liverpool debut, certainly brought the pieces alive.

The Brahms began positively, if a little on the staid side. That said, the opening movement contained some impressive sounds from the woodwind ensemble and the horns were particularly impressive, as were the violas in the second movement.

The allegretto felt ever so slightly laboured but all was redeemed in the finale where the orchestral tuttis were like beams of light shining out of the darkness.

Gaffigan did bring the work alive. It might be Brahms’s most classically inspired of his four symphonies and is, in many ways, rather inward looking. But this turned into a bright interpretation.

Pianist John Lill brought his consummate skills to bear on an impeccable performance of the Schumann.

This concerto, by one of the greatest song writers who ever worked – his Dichterliebe is one of the highlights of next week’s Rodewald recitals – contrasts moments of thoughtful repose with passages of exuberance and joy, especially in the first movement.

A graceful, even subdued intermezzo led into a vibrant, almost ecstatic finale.

And, as the RLPO slowly let its collective hair down, it worked its way up to the excesses of Don Juan.

The concert is repeated tonight.