Performance Today®

The Canadian Brass do a big Christmas season tour every year, sharing their versions of holiday classics. Their rich, warm sound feels like a comfy hand-knit wool scarf. On this episode of Performance Today, join us for holiday music performed by the Canadian Brass.

Quartet San Francisco is dedicated to advancing the traditional string quartet structure into a new world of vibrant music. On this episode of Performance Today, Quartet San Francisco stop by for music and conversation at PT's very own Maude Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio.

Everybody can recognize the tune of the Sugar Plum Fairy from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, but even the lesser-known sections of the ballet are great. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll explore the Nutcracker "B-sides", with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

A fortepiano sounds...kind of honky-tonk, but honestly, they sounds more like the pianos that Mozart would have played in his day. On this edition of Performance Today, Richard Egarr plays a fortepiano alongside the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12.

Stephen Hough is a poet, novelist, essayist, painter, and composer, but he's best known for playing the piano. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Stephen Hough play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff, from a concert with the Aspen Festival Orchestra.

On Wednesday's Performance Today, we celebrate Venezuelan Christmas traditions. Pianist Gabriela Montero and flutist Marco Granados share Venezuelan carols, dances, and their own Christmas memories.

Some pieces of music just don't get played as often. Conductor Carlos Kalmar calls them "step-children." On this edition of Performance Today, we'll hear from a "step-child" by Gustav Mahler, his Symphony No. 7, from a concert by the Oregon Symphony.

Pianist Rodolfo Leone is Performance Today's current Young Artist in Residence. Rodolfo joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music, and you can hear it all here!

In 1829, composer Felix Mendelssohn went on a walking tour of Scotland. He sent a musical sketch in a letter back to his family, and those notes turned out to be the beginnings of his "Scottish Symphony." On this edition of Performance Today, join us for a Nashville Symphony performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3.