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.
After fighting in the Austrian army during the first World War, composer and violinist Fritz Kreisler moved to the US, where, initially, he did not 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 at the Music@Menlo festival.
A wacky collection of 16 short pieces of music, each one imitating the sound of a musical instrument or an animal. It's the Capriccio Stravagante by Italian composer Carlo Farina. We'll hear it from the Music@Menlo Festival on this episode of Performance Today.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a dashing, virtuoso pianist around the turn of the 20th century. In 1919, he was the Prime Minister of Poland (his signature is on the Treaty of Versailles). On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Paderewski's Piano Concerto No. 1, from a concert in his hometown of Warsaw, Poland.
Not many pieces can match the romantic drama and sheer virtuosity of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear a thrilling concert performance by pianist Joyce Yang and the Nashville Symphony.
Thierry Escaich has been a church organist in Paris for more than 20 years. He plays hymns and chorales, and then improvises on those themes. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Escaich's 21st Century twist on the old Lutheran tune, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. The piece is called 'Psalmos' by Thierry Escaich and is performed by the Cincinnati Symphony.
It's one of the great showpieces for violin, played by one of the finest violin soloists of our time. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear violinist Janine Jansen and the Oslo Philharmonic give an extraordinary performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D major.
Russian composer Alexander Scriabin was an innovative and complex man. Leo Tolstoy described his music as "a sincere expression of genius"... and Scriabin himself would likely have agreed. On Monday's Performance Today, learn more about Alexander Scriabin and hear his "Poem of Ecstasy" performed in concert by the Cincinnati Orchestra.
Nathalie Joachim is at the vanguard of a new approach to the classical tradition. She combines a wide range of musical styles and sounds - classical, soul, hip-hop... really, anything goes. On this weekend's Performance Today, join us for music and conversation with flutist and composer Nathalie Joachim.
Cellist Evan Kahn is Performance Today's Young Artist in Residence. On Friday's Performance Today, Evan joins Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music by Tchaikovsky, Martinu, George Kahn (Evan's father!), and more.
