Most of us have a few unfinished tasks in our lives: half-filled photo albums, returning that voicemail you received last month, and of course, addressing that room in the basement. On Wednesday's show, hear the Berlin Philharmonic perform Franz Schubert's most famous loose end, his Symphony No. 8, known as the "Unfinished Symphony".
In 1928, Maurice Ravel spent some time hanging out with George Gershwin in Harlem jazz clubs. The sounds Ravel heard in Harlem made their way into some of his subsequent compositions. On Tuesday's Performance Today, pianist Inon Barnatan joins the New York Philharmonic to play Ravel's jazz-influenced Piano Concerto in G Major.
Mozart Guarnieri's father was an opera buff who named his kids after composers... his brothers were named Rossine and Verde. On Monday's Performance today, take a seat at Lincoln Center for a performance of "Three Dances for Orchestra" by Brazilian composer Mozart Camargo Guarnieri.
When Claude Debussy wrote music for the ballet "Jeux", he was picturing a game of tennis between two young women and one young man. In tennis, "love" means nothing; in Debussy's music, love is everything. On Saturday's Performance Today, we'll hear romance and seduction on the courts, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.
Sergei Taneyev's Symphony No. 4 is a great piece of Romantic Russian music, and it's not played nearly often enough. On Friday's Performance Today, hear the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra perform Taneyev's symphony for an audience in Rotterdam.
Leonard Slatkin says conducting gives him a sense of great power and at the same time, a feeling of helplessness. On Thursday's Performance Today, Slatkin joins us to talk about the curious art of conducting. Plus, we'll hear him lead this performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 4. in a concert from Warsaw, Poland.
The International Space Orchestra is a band where you can find astronauts, space scientists, and NASA flight directors all gathered around the very same piece of music. International Space Orchestra founder Nelly Ben Hayoun and NASA Ames Flight Director Rusty Hunt join Ria Misra on the Music is Music podcast today, to talk about music, space, and the ISO's Apollo 11 space opera.
When Claude Debussy wrote music for the ballet "Jeux," he was picturing a game of tennis between two young women and one young man. In tennis, "love" means nothing; in Debussy's music, 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.
Beethoven's Eroica Symphony is a monumental work. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear it from a monumentally beautiful place; Festival Mozaic in San Luis Obispo, California - right between the ocean and the mountains.
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