Performance Today®

Robert Beaser says that being a composer requires a certain type of personality. You have to be okay with solitude and have an incredible amount of patience, and it took him a while to find his calling. On today's show, hear the Los Angeleles Guitar Quartet play Robert Beaser's Chaconne.

When Maurice Ravel wrote Gaspard de la Nuit, he was trying to make it the most difficult piano music ever written... perhaps even unplayable. Benjamin Grosvenor plays the unplayable, in concert, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

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.

Florence Price's Piano Concerto has only been performed a handful of times. Pianist Michelle Cann wants to change that, and she commissioned a new version for piano quintet. On today's show, hear this new arrangement of the Piano Concerto by Florence Price.

Every violinist uses rosin to get just the right friction between the bow and the strings. When he was six years old, Gil Shaham found another use for that little ball of rosin. On today's show, Shaham recalls channeling his inner batting champ and hits one out of the park playing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the LA Phil.

When guitarist Jason Vieaux was preparing for his debut with the Nashville Symphony, he told Nashville Public Radio "This is the most time I've ever spent on any piece of music, ever...That's how hard it is." On this episode of Performance Today, hear Jason Vieaux and the Nashville Symphony play the Concerto for Guitar by Jonathan Leshnoff.

In 1959, composers Chen Gang and He Zhanhao wrote a piece based on an old Chinese story where two lovers face a tragic end... and a new beginning. On today's show, hear The Butterfly Lovers violin concerto, performed by violinist Gil Shaham and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Florence Price's Piano Concerto has only been performed a handful of times. Pianist Michelle Cann wants to change that, and she commissioned a new version for piano quintet. It's intimate and powerful, and we can't wait to share it with you. On today's show, hear this new arrangement of the Piano Concerto by Florence Price.

The most recent Tchaikovsky Competition was open to brass players for the first time. Tchaikovsky didn't write music for solo brass, so the jury chose the Horn Concerto by Reinhold Gliere to be the horn's shining moment. Hear Yun Zeng's a gold medal performance of Gliere's Horn Concerto on this edition of Performance Today.