Performance Today®

The Cleveland Orchestra is known as one of the best orchestras in the country, and they've consistently held that ranking over the course of several generations. On Monday's Performance Today, join us for a special tribute to an orchestra now celebrating their 100th year: the Cleveland Orchestra.

Leonard Bernstein was a musical force for the ages, but behind all that talent and accomplishment, he simply wanted to accomplish one thing. On this weekend's Performance Today, Jamie Bernstein tells about on her father's ultimate goal, and we'll hear more about Leonard Bernstein's life and legacy.

Leonard Bernstein was a musical force for the ages, but behind all that talent and accomplishment, he simply wanted to accomplish one thing. On Friday's Performance Today, Jamie Bernstein tells about on her father's ultimate goal, and we'll hear more about Leonard Bernstein's life and legacy.

He led thrilling concerts. He traveled the world. He hobnobbed with brilliant thinkers and artists. Is there anything Leonard Bernstein missed out on in his rich life? His daughter Jamie Bernstein says yes. He would have loved the Internet, she says, but more importantly he never fully understood the impact that his music has had on the world.

When Leonard Bernstein was asked to choose music for the funeral of Robert Kennedy, he chose a movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 5. The piece clearly meant a lot to Bernstein, and when he died in 1990, he was buried with a copy of the score laid across his chest. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear the New York Philharmonic play "Adagietto" from Mahler's Symphony No. 5, with Leonard Bernstein conducting.

Charlie Harmon worked for several years as an assistant to Leonard Bernstein. In his new book On the Road and Off the Record With Leonard Bernstein and in his interview with Fred Child, Harmon describes vividly the October day in 1990 he was called to visit Bernstein and realized it was the last time they would see each other.

Six musical friends in New York have a part-time project called yMusic, a one-of-a-kind ensemble with an interest in "flourishing in the overlap between pop and classical worlds." On Thursday's Performance Today, hear yMusic perform "Everness" by Mark Dancigers, with special thanks from our friends at Classical KING-FM in Seattle.

Aaron Stern feels there's a reason he and Leonard Bernstein became so close. Stern says he learned a lot from Bernstein about music and feels he was able to teach Bernstein something about wisdom not long before Bernstein's death. Together they came up with the idea for the Academy for the Love of Learning which is celebrating 20 years as a nonprofit organization.

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.