Performance Today®

In 1952, Composer Margaret Bonds wrote and premiered a piece based on a spiritual. The music was finally published in 2020. On today's show, pianist Lara Downes plays "The Bells,” from the Spiritual Suite by Margaret Bonds.

Ferde Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite doesn't seem like music for Christmas, at least not on its own, but then it was used in a crucial part of the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story." On this episode of Performance Today, hear music from several classic movies about Christmas.

This fall, Yo-Yo Ma (and many others) were involved in the effort to evacuate 272 musicians, teachers, and their family members from Afghanistan. They were all affiliated with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). The story is somberly uplifting. Learn more on today's show, and hear Yo-Yo Ma play music of peace and hope.

In 1952, Composer Margaret Bonds wrote and premiered a piece based on a spiritual. The music was finally published in 2020. On today's show, pianist Lara Downes plays "The Bells,” from the Spiritual Suite by Margaret Bonds.

It's a piece that isn't played very often these days, but it's a lot of fun and has a fascinating backstory. Hear it on today’s show: the Suite for two violins, cello and piano left hand, by Erich Korngold, from a concert at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Imagine a festive sleigh ride through a winter evening: horses trotting, bells jangling in rhythm. The air is frosty, but we're warm and toasty in all of our winter gear. We'll go on a Sleigh Ride with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra on this episode of Performance Today.

It's one of the greatest endings in all of classical music. After a hard life and a fiery death, this brilliant symbol of the unquenchable thirst for life rises from the ashes. The Classical Tahoe Orchestra plays the Firebird Suite (1919), by Igor Stravinsky on today's show.

Capriccio Espagnol by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1887. Rimsky-Korsakov conducted the orchestra himself, and the musicians made it clear that they LOVED his new work. To this day, orchestras love playing this piece, and we get to hear it on today's show: Capriccio Espagnol by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Composer Osvaldo Golijov wrote a piece, a lullaby and variations, for a 2002 film called "The Man Who Cried." The film never really found an audience, but that piece by Golijov has become a favorite 21st-century work for chamber ensembles. On today's show, hear Golijov's "Lullaby and Doina", from the Mizmorim Festival in Basel, Switzerland.