Performance Today®

Horn player Sarah Willis says she has always loved playing Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 but that it is challenging to play well. So, Willis took a decidedly lyrical approach to practice the concerto. Hear Sarah Willis and the Lyceum Orchestra of Havana perform it at a concert in Germany on today's show.

What would you do for love? Could you write a song expressing your passion? And if the person you care for fell in love with somebody else, could you let them go so they could be happy? We'll hear that these answers can be found in classic operas on this episode of Performance Today. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler!

What do we mean when we say "American classical music"? Composer Derrick Skye sought to answer that question in the form of a string quartet. On today's show, hear music that draws on the musical traditions that reflect our multicultural American society: American Mirror by Derrick Skye.

When Alondra de la Parra was growing up in Mexico, she played piano, but she had terrible stage fright. As a conductor, she draws on the seemingly simple advice of a respected mentor: “Be strong.” On today's show, Alondra de la Parra leads the WDR Radio Orchestra in a live concert performance of "Variaciones concertantes" by Alberto Ginastera.

Composer Jim Stephenson grew up watching his father build model trains. They were detailed, realistic models, and each train car had its personality. He was inspired by those vintage model trains when he wrote a piece for the ensemble ROCO. On today's show, hear ROCOmotive, by Jim Stephenson, from a ROCO concert in Houston, Texas.

In printing and publishing, a watermark is a faint design pressed into a piece of paper used to identify the time and place it was created. Composer Caroline Shaw had a poetic version of that idea and composed a piece that references a Beethoven piano concerto. On today's show, hear Jonathan Biss and the Saint Paul Chamber orchestra play Watermark by Caroline Shaw.

Toby Appel is one of the best viola players around, and he is also an excellent chef. Appel spent several years running a restaurant in Santa Fe, and, for a year, he was the personal chef for the artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  Join us today to hear chef Toby Appel and friends play the Phantasy Quintet by Ralph Vaughan Williams, from a concert in Colorado Springs.

Join us for a musical New Year's celebration! We'll usher in the new year with a celebratory Trumpet Concerto by Johann Neruda and sample a bit of musical champagne, courtesy of Johann Strauss Jr. Music for the New Year, on this edition of Performance Today.

The Manhattan skyline, the majesty of the Teton Mountains, and indigenous communities living in the American West. Those are some of the elements that inspired a musical reflection on our nation: American Scene by William Grant Still.