Performance Today®

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein could hear the change that took place in New York City last March. She said, "The sound had been turned down...and that quiet was not necessarily a peaceful quiet." On today's show, we'll share Dinnerstein's musical response to that unsettling quiet.

Hey diddle diddle, a section of fiddles; the horn jumped over the moon. The audience cheered to hear such sport, and the flute ran away with the tune. On today's show, Matthias Pintscher conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel, from a concert in Interlochen, Michigan.

Do you know any couples who are always arguing and disagreeing, but it's also clear that they truly love each other? On today's show, hear music inspired by a similar couple. Pianist Andre Watts and the Nashville Symphony perform Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto No. 2.

Composer Jimmy Lopez was working on a piece when his father unexpectedly died. Suddenly, the music had deeper meaning for Lopez; he said it came to represent his father's transcendental journey. On today's show, hear Guardian of the Horizon by Jimmy Lopez, from a concert presented by the St Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Double bassist Aaron Olguin is classically trained, but he also loves rock and roll. Olguin says that when a double bass concerto by Andres Martin premiered in 2012, it shook the double bass world. On today's show, hear Aaron Olguin play a classical concerto with undercurrents of rock: the Double Bass Concerto No. 1 by Andres Martin.

When you look at a painting more than once, you often find new elements you didn't see before. The same thing goes with music, especially when a familiar favorite gets a new arrangement. On today's show, hear an intimate setting of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler!

What do we mean when we say "American classical music?" Composer Derrick Spiva 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 Spiva Jr.

In 1874, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov traveled to the northern coast of the Black Sea. He was intoxicated by the Arabic and Turkish music he heard on the streets and in coffee houses. On today's show, hear these exotic impressions in a concert performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade.

When you look at a painting more than once, you often find new elements you didn't see before. The same thing goes with music, especially when a familiar favorite gets a new arrangement. On today's show, hear an intimate setting of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.