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.

Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia had a tyrannical father who punished her for playing music. Her life didn't get any easier when her father died, but music remained her secret source of comfort. On today's show, hear the Flute Sonata in F Major by Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia.

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.

Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 is usually played by about a hundred musicians. Recently, the Windham Festival focused on the intimacy of Mahler's third, with a small orchestra of only about 35 players. On this episode of Performance Today, hear a MUCH different take on Mahler than we usually hear.

We often talk about the dedication of young musicians, behind many young artists is an equally dedicated parent. Flutist Aaron Perdue talks family, and gives a gorgeous performance of Aaron Copland, on this episode of Performance Today.

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.

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.