American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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.
Not many orchestras even try to play the Variaciones Concertantes by Alberto Ginastera. It's not because musicians or audiences don't like the music. They do. It's just really hard to play well. On this episode of Performance Today, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra gives a thrilling performance of this challenging piece from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.
In Plato's Symposium, seven men get together for a party and, when the topic of love comes up, each man weighs in with his own soliloquy. Those speeches inspired a piece of orchestral music by Leonard Bernstein. On Friday's Performance Today, hear Bernstein's Serenade after Plato's Symposium, from a concert in Nashville.
