Dimmock is reading "Inferno" ("Hell") from Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem "The Divine Comedy".
Rayson Whalley was a percussionist and 'house pianist' with The Hallé Orchestra from 1948; notably playing with them during the 1958 Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. In March 1952 he amazed Ralph Vaughan Williams by performing his Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia Antartica" at sight, when the composer visited Manchester to supply the score to Sir John Barbirolli.