Performance Today®

The Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland was set to have a big comeback series this summer, but then, twenty-four musicians tested positive for COVID. The festival had to think on their feet to protect their musicians...and their audiences. Hear a highlight from the reimagined 2021 Verbier Festival on this edition of Performance Today.

The history of the entire universe, told in twenty minutes of music. That might seem ambitious, but that's what composer Jean-Féry Rebel had in mind when he wrote a piece in 1738.  On this edition of Performance Today, hear Rebel's Les Élémens (The Elements), from a concert presented by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

When composer Joaquín Turina was 27 years old, he turned a musical 180; he stopped trying to imitate German and French styles, and began to embrace his Spanish identity—and you can hear it in (what turned out to be) his best known work. On today's show, hear an Oregon Symphony performance of Danzas Fantasticas, by Joaquín Turina.

In 1947, Spanish composer Manuel Palau wrote an exciting, rhythmic guitar concerto. Surprisingly, that piece hadn't been played outside of Spain until just a few months ago. On today's show, hear a rare performance of an extraordinary piece: Manuel Palau’s Concierto Levantino, featuring guitarist Jongho Park, from a concert in Seoul, South Korea.

Cristina Cutts Dougherty says the tuba is capable of anything. "We're still figuring out how to play this instrument," she said, "but we're going to take over." Our first tuba-playing Young Artist in Residence, Cutts Dougherty joins us on the next Performance Today, from APM.

Composer Robert W. Butts he was working on a new piece when he took a break to attend a concert of Irish music. When the musicians started playing jigs, he decided that that sound—celebratory Celtic dance music—was just what he needed in his final movement. On today's show, hear the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey perform Robert W. Butts' new Viola Concerto. It's classical music with a Celtic kick.

Last year, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich premiered a new concerto for cello and full orchestra. Zwilich then reimagined that piece for a smaller ensemble of only six players—the limitations of the pandemic made that idea all the more timely, appealing, and safe. On today's show, we'll hear the Cello Concerto for chamber ensemble, by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, performed for a live (online) audience from the spacious Brungard Aviation Hangar, in Boulder, Colorado.

In his later years, Gioachino Rossini scribbled notes on his old manuscripts. On one piece, he wrote, "Six terrible sonatas composed  by me at a most youthful age..." On this edition of Performance Today, hear one of Rossini's "terrible" sonatas—which isn't terrible—composed when he was just 12 years old.

Cristina Cutts Dougherty says the tuba is capable of anything. "We're still figuring out how to play this instrument," she said, "but we're going to take over." Our first tuba-playing Young Artist in Residence, Cutts Dougherty joins us on the next Performance Today, from APM.