Performance Today®

American pianist Jonathan Biss plays a wide range of music, but something about Beethoven always pulls him back in. On today's show, Jonathan Biss pours his own passion into Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, with the Houston Symphony.

The accordion can do a lot more than polka. It can croon a sweet serenade, add a bit of whimsy. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll hear accordionist Julien Labro express the more personal side of the accordion in a performance with guitarist Jason Vieaux in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A few years ago, American composer Rick Sowash set a poem by Elizabeth Coatsworth to music, creating a song. And then he turned that song into a musical conversation between flute and cello. On today's show, hear the Sylvan Trio perform the end result: Seasonal Breezes, by Rick Sowash.

In 1867, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote a play about a young man who spends his life avoiding responsibility. The play features amorous milkmaids, a runaway bride, a cave full of trolls, and a sojourn in the deserts of Egypt. The drama never became one of Ibsen's biggest hits, but the music that Edvard Grieg wrote for it did. On today's show, hear Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, performed by the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero's family emigrated from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, where he began his musical journey as an percussionist with the Costa Rican Youth Symphony. On today's show, Guerrero conducts the Nashville Symphony in a performance of Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole. Nick Canellakis guest hosts.

Euphonium soloist Demondrae Thurman premiered a concerto by Anthony Barfield in 2014. On today's show, Thurman tells us about his special musical connection with Barfield's piece, and hear him perform Barfield's Heritage Concerto with the Indiana University Wind Ensemble, from a recent concert in Carmel, Indiana.

Trumpeter Ansel Norris says "The trumpet is an unruly beast that must be coaxed into a calm and agreeable state... Some days it comes very naturally, and others it requires a bit more wrangling." Norris certainly wrangled his unruly trumpet during the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition finals. On today's show, hear him at that competition, playing Rodion Shchedrin's Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero's family emigrated from Nicaragua to Costa Rica, where he began his musical journey as an percussionist with the Costa Rican Youth Symphony. On today's show, Guerrero conducts the Nashville Symphony in a performance of Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole. Nick Canellakis guest hosts.

In 1955, archaeologists discovered an old stone tablet in Syria. Etched on the surface is one of the earliest forms of music notation. Malek Jandali used that ancient system, known as the Hurrian songs, as the inspiration for a new piece. On today's show, composer and pianist Malek Jandali performs Piano Dreams with the Apollo Chamber Players at a concert in Houston.