Point/counterpoint: Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg says you don't have to change the notes to improvise -- interpretation is a form of improv. Pianist Robert Levin disagrees. We'll consider the question by comparing VERY different versions of the Bach Goldberg Variations: Glenn Gould vs. Simone Dinnerstein. AND... some composers have written pieces intended to sound like improv, but... you have to play the notes they wrote. Schubert "Impromptus," and Poulenc "Improvisations."
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
John Williams: "End Credits, from Munich"
Various artists with conductor John Williams
Robert Schumann: "Phantasiestucke," Op. 73
Clarinetist Anthony McGill and pianist Derek Han
Music@Menlo Festival, Palo Alto, California
"The Piano Puzzler"
This week's contestant is Ken Gallant from Little Rock, Arkansas
Francis Poulenc: Four songs from "Chanson Francaises," Op. 130
The King's Singers
The BBC Proms, London, England
John Adams: "The Chairman Dances"
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales with conductor Kristjan Jarvi
The BBC Proms, London, England
Hour 2
Carl Maria von Weber: "Romanza Siciliana"
D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band
Bela Kovacs: Homages to Bach and de Falla, from "Two Hommages"
Clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester
Occidental Community Church, Occidental, California
Arthur Honneger: Hommage a Maurice Ravel
Pianist Gilles Vonsattel
Spivey Hall, Morrow, Georgia
Franz Schubert: Impromptu No. 2 in E-flat, Op. 90, D. 899
Pianist Ingrid Fliter
Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara
Francis Poulenc: Improvisations
Pianist Francis Poulenc
Johann Sebastian Bach: Two movements from "The Goldberg Variations"
Pianist Glenn Gould
Johann Sebastian Bach: Two movements from "Goldberg Variations"
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul, Minnesota
Johann Sebastian Bach: One movement from "The Goldberg Variations"
Pianist Glenn Gould
Carl Maria von Weber: Overture to "Der Freischutz"
The Dresden Philharmonic with conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos
Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach, Florida
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American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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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