Performance Today®

Nino Rota is one of those composers whose music you know... even if you don't know you know it. He composed music for 150 film soundtracks, including The Godfather (1 & 2) and numerous films by Federico Fellini, but he was also a prolific composer of concert works. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear the 'Sonata for Flute and Harp' by Nino Rota, from a concert in Madrid.

In 2004, the executor of an estate in Switzerland found a dusty old book of hand-written music... music that he recognized... it was the score that Sergei Rachmaninoff used to conduct the premiere of his second symphony in 1908. Find out more about the manuscript's dormancy and rediscovery on Tuesday's Performance Today... and hear Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 performed by the Houston Symphony.

Emmanuel Pahud is one of the greatest flute players on the planet. He is Principal Flute of the Berlin Philharmonic, and he also has an extensive solo career. On Monday's Performance Today, take a seat at the Lugano Festival in Switzerland, and hear Emmanuel Pahad in concert with the Swiss Italian Orchestra.

Danish composer Rued Langgaard was a prolific composer and a fantastic organist, but he couldn't land a full-time job until he was 47. And on the rare occasion his works were performed during his lifetime, the criticism was harsh. On Saturday's Performance Today, how a bad attitude might be to blame for a composer's obscurity.

Composer and organist Rued Langgaard felt at odds with his Danish contemporaries... and he didn't keep it a secret. He was a prolific composer, but his work wasn't truly recognized until after his death. Hear more about Rued Langgaard's life and music on Friday's Performance Today.

What makes for the perfect encore? If the audience is already on its feet, do you want fast music? Or do you want to quiet the house down a bit with something introspective? On Thursday's Performance Today, violinist Hilary Hahn talks about her quest to find the perfect encore. Guest hosted by Nick Canellakis.

Everything is a videogame where you can, literally, be the universe--whether you're playing as a strip of bacon, a planet, a bug, or even a thought. But in that huge world of character possibilities there's also a huge world of musical possibilities. Ben Lukas Boysen and Sebastian Plano, the composers who wrote the music for Everything, join Music is Music host Ria Misra for a conversation about games, music, and what they mean.

During a trip down the Nile, composer Camille Saint-Saens became captivated by an old authentic Nubian song. Captivation led to inspiration, and he transformed the tune into a piano concerto. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear pianist Stephen Hough and the Nashville Symphony play the "Egyptian" Concerto by Camille Saint-Saens.

Christina and Michelle Naughton are identical twins. They began taking piano lessons when they were 4 years old. It's safe to say that they took it pretty seriously... they now tour the world as a piano duo. On Tuesday's Performance Today, the Naughton sisters shine in a concert performance of 'Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor' by Francis Poulenc.