Performance Today®

On Thursday's Performance Today, Michael Tilson Thomas reflects back to a humorous evening with Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and the spirit of Igor Stravinsky. Then hear Leonard Bernstein conduct the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite.

Tania Leon is a Cuban-born composer, conductor and a Distinguished Professor of Music at the City University of New York. On Wednesday's Performance Today, Tania Leon tells us about meeting Leonard Bernstein, that "...(it) was like meeting a mythological figure."

Sure, the song 'Maria' from Leonard Bernstein's musical 'West Side Story' is lovely. For composer and conductor Tania Leon, it meant so much more. 'Maria' set in motion her dream of a possible life in America. Leon remembers her mentor, friend, salsa dancer and Spanish-speaker Leonard Bernstein.

When composer Bright Sheng met Leonard Bernstein, he wowed the maestro with his talent. Not musical talent at first, but his skills in the kitchen. Bright Sheng and Leonard Bernstein...and Peking duck, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

When Bright Sheng went to the Tanglewood Summer Music Festival as a young composer, he didn't think his Peking Duck would lead to a meeting with Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein left impressed by the music and thrilled by Sheng's cooking. Those minutes in the kitchen made Sheng "Tanglewood famous," he says, and was the beginning of a long working relationship with Bernstein.

After fighting in the Austrian army during the first World War, composer and violinist Fritz Kreisler moved to the US, where, initially, he didn't receive a warm welcome. Kreisler missed his home in Vienna, and he wrote that sense of longing into music. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear his String Quartet in A minor, from a live performance recorded at the Music@Menlo festival.

Leonard Bernstein's love of word play and competitive drive was notorious. Whether it was anagrams or mental jotto, Bernstein's former assistant Charlie Harmon says there were few who could beat him. And if you did, his daughter Jamie Bernstein said, you might wish you hadn't.

Leonard Bernstein took a keen interest in helping many of his fellow musicians. He launched dozens of careers, including that of pianist Andre Watts. Less than a week after Watts debuted on stage with Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic, they made what became a best-selling recording. Hear it on this weekend's Performance Today.

Composer Thierry Escaich uses traditional melodies as a starting point, then moves them to unexpected territory. On Friday's Performance Today, hear the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra perform "Psalmos, Concerto for Orchestra" by Thierry Escaich.