Performance Today®

Modest Mussorgsky died at a young age, leaving debt and several unfinished compositions. His friend, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, decided to help by getting Mussorgsky's works published and settling his debts... a nice thing to do, except it wasn't necessarily what Mussorgsky would have wanted. On Friday's Performance Today, the story and an example: Night on Bald Mountain, by Modest Mussorgsky... finishing touches by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Nick Canellakis guest hosts.

Andras Schiff says he begins every day by playing a full hour of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier... he says "It's like taking care of your inner hygiene. There is something very pure about it." Hear pianist Andras Schiff in concert on Thursday's Performance Today.

When Claude Debussy wrote the music for the ballet "Jeux", he was picturing a game of tennis between two women and one man. In a tennis score, "love" means zero, but in Debussy's score, love is everything. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear romance and seduction on the courts, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Pianist Saleem Ashkar says he never heard classical music growing up in Israel. Then, when he was six years old, Saleem's father traded a truck for a piano... and Saleem found his calling. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Saleem Ashkar plays Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Luxembourg Philharmonic.

Violinist Simone Porter is 21 years-old, and has been soloing with major orchestras for years. Porter made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony, and in March 2015, she was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant. On Monday's Performance Today, Simone Porter takes the stage with the Nashville Symphony, performing the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Samuel Barber. Valerie Kahler guest hosts.

Composer Aleksandra Vrebalov visited a bunch of taverns in preparation for one of her compositions. She wasn't looking for a liquid muse. She was seeking the sounds of Romanian folk music. On Saturday's Performance Today, the Apollo Chamber Players perform Vrebalov's Pannonia Boundless, with Jade Simmons filling in as guest host.

Composer Aleksandra Vrebalov visited a bunch of taverns in preparation for one of her compositions. She wasn't looking for a liquid muse. She was seeking the sounds of Romanian folk music. On Friday's Performance Today, the Apollo Chamber Players perform Vrebalov's Pannonia Boundless, with Jade Simmons filling in as guest host.

Arnold Bax was an English composer, but when he went to his beloved Ireland, he adopted the persona of poet Dermot O'Byrne. He tried to keep his alter ego secret but his music betrayed his love of all things Irish. Music by Arnold Bax (aka Dermot O'Byrne) on Thursday's Performance Today.

Johannes Brahms was forty-four when he wrote his Symphony No. 1. Even though he was being hailed as Beethoven's successor, Brahms would not premiere his first symphony until he felt he had a command of the medium. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Louis Langree, perform Brahms's Symphony No. 1 in C minor.