Performance Today®

1844 was a rough year for Schumann; he was entrenched in anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Functioning and getting through a day was a challenge - let alone trying to write music. And yet, from within his struggles, he was able to write some a symphony full of light, life, and hope. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Schumann's Symphony No. 2 from a concert at the Aspen Chamber Music Festival and School.

On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear the Piano Concerto No. 5 by French composer Camille Saint-Saens... and find out why it has become known as the Egyptian Concerto.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt is a Seventh Day Adventist, so he can't work from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday... when so many concerts are performed. Yet Blomstedt says conducting concerts is not a problem; rehearsals ARE work, but a concert is an expression of his devotion. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Herbert Blomstedt conducts the LA Phil in a concert performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9.

On Monday's Performance Today, we'll go to a concert in Warsaw to hear Leonard Slatkin conduct a vibrant performance of the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms. Also featured: an exhilarating piece called Gumboots by David Bruce, from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

On this weekend's Performance Today, cellist Raphael Bell plays music by Bohuslav Martinu... music that Bell didn't like when he was younger. Tune in to find out more about Bohuslav Martinu, and why Raphael Bell now loves his music.

When Edgar Meyer was growing up, there was sort of a family tradition... his father and two uncles played the double bass. Now, Edgar Meyer is THE great double bass virtuoso of our time. On Friday's Performance Today, hear him play a Bottesini double bass concerto with the Nashville Symphony.

Jean Sibelius wrote his second symphony in 1902, when Finland was struggling for its independence from Russia. The symphony came to be known as Finland's 'Symphony of Independence'. Sibelius never call it that... he simply called it Symphony No. 2. Osmo Vanska conducts Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, in concert, on Thursday's Performance Today.

On Wednesday's Performance Today, cellist Raphael Bell plays music by Bohuslav Martinu... music that Bell didn't like when he was younger. Tune in to find out more about Bohuslav Martinu, and why Raphael Bell now loves his music.

Composer Felix Mendelssohn once said that he wished he could make his Symphony No. 5 go away. He almost got his wish... the manuscript disappeared for several decades. today, it's seen as a masterpiece. The Symphony No. 5 by Mendelssohn, in concert on Tuesday's Performance Today.