Poster Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff
Wolfgang Reese
Performance Today®

when words and music meet

We're devoting the week to the confluence of music and literature. And we'll hear interesting insights on the subject from composer Dominick Argento and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff before hearing some Argento from Minneapolis and Quasthoff singing Schubert in Berlin.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Gioachino Rossini: "Siete Voi," sextette from "La Cenerentola" ("Cinderella")
Singers Deborah Linn Cole, Oana Andra, Ewa Podles, Lars Lettner, Martin Bruhns and Bernd Hofmann with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Peter Falk

Nikolai Medtner: Fairy Tale No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 20
Pianist Anastasia Markina
Katzin Concert Hall, Tempe, Arizona

Jean Sibelius: "Skogsraet" ("The Wood Nymph"), Op. 15
The Risor Festival Strings with narrator Jorgen Langhelle, pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, and Radovan Vladkovic and Inger Besserudhagen, French horns
Risør Chamber Music Festival, Risor, Norway

Robert Schumann: "Marchenerzahlungen" ("Fairy Tale Stories"), Op. 132
Clarinetist Todd Levy, violist Scott Lee and pianist Mark Neikrug
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Maurice Ravel: "Mother Goose" Suite
The Radio France Philharmonic with conductor Myung-Whun Chung
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Hour 2

Aaron Copland: "Morning on the Ranch" from "The Red Pony"
The St. Louis Symphony with conductor Andre Previn

Johann Sebastian Bach: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor
Violinist Eugene Drucker

Robert Schumann: Overture to "Scenes from Goethe's Faust"
The Cleveland Orchestra with conductor Franz Welser-Most
Severance Hall, Cleveland

Dominick Argento: "Parents (December, 1940)" from "From the Diary of Virginia Woolf"
Mezzo-soprano Dame Janet Baker with pianist Martin Isepp
Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis

Franz Schubert: "Der Lindenbaum" ("The Linden Tree") and "Die Krahe" ("The Crow") from "Winterreise," D. 911
Bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff and pianist Daniel Barenboim
Philharmonie, Berlin

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Performance Today® features live concert recordings that can’t be heard anywhere else, highlights from new album releases, and in-studio performances and interviews. Performance Today® is based at the APM studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, but is frequently on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country. Also, each Wednesday, composer Bruce Adolphe joins host Fred Child for a classical musical game and listener favorite: the Piano Puzzler.

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