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.
Maurice Ravel was 31 when he began writing a piece that he called simply, "La Valse," a light tribute to carefree Viennese waltzes. He set the piece aside, then saw the agony of World War I firsthand. When the 45-year-old Ravel came back to his waltz, the world was different place. He was a different man. And La Valse was no longer a light tribute. Hear pianist Alex Beyer perform Ravel's "La Valse", on Thursday's Performance Today.
Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, by Richard Strauss, is a musical fairy-tale... a 15-minute orchestral romp that celebrates a crass, anti-establishment prankster. Hear the Danish National Symphony Orchestra perform the piece, as well as other concert highlights from around the world, on Wednesday's Performance Today. Yura Lee guest-hosts.
On Tuesday's Performance Today, JoAnn Falletta leads the Buffalo Philharmonic through a pulsing fanfare, music inspired by a thrilling (and terrifying) ride in a Lamborghini. Buckle your seat-belt for a "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" by composer John Adams. Guest hosted by violinist and violist Yura Lee.
It's the holiday season and we've teamed up with @tattersalldistilling to create specialty cocktails inspired by classical music and musicians.
Chris Brubeck composed a concerto for the Canadian Brass - music with no borders between different musical styles. On Monday's episode of Performance Today, hear the Canadian Brass and the Lexington Philharmonic perform the world premiere of "No Borders" by Chris Brubeck.
On overcast days, the mountains of Vermont lose their color, becoming grey silhouettes. And some of the roads are so dark you need headlights, even during the day. Composer Robert Paterson says that it's majestic and sometimes treacherous. We'll hear JoAnn Falletta lead the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in a live performance of Paterson's new piece, Dark Mountains, on this weekend's Performance Today.
When writing his Piano Concerto No. 3, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev wrote a single word above a particular point in the composition..."coldly." It's a chilling musical descent, entombed in the concerto's fiery heat. On Friday's Performance Today, pianist Simon Trpceski and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 at a concert in Stavanger, Norway.
Steve Reich is one of the most influential and acclaimed composers alive. In the 1960's, Reich was among a group of composers that pioneered what is known as minimal music. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear Reich's "Cello Counterpoint." Cellist Rose Bellini plays along with 7 pre-recorded and played by cellist Maya Beiser.
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 Wednesday's Performance Today.
