Right before the thaw in Cuban-American relations, the Apollo Chamber Players asked composer Arthur Gottschalk to write a quartet based on Cuban folk songs. They premiered the piece in Houston in 2016. It's 21st century music with traditional roots...the Apollo Chamber Players perform Gottschalk's 'Imagenes de Cuba' (Pictures of Cuba) on Friday's Performance Today.
Every year a group of friends, who happen to be some of the best brass players in Norway, get together for a fun reunion disguised as a music tour. This year, they stopped by the Performance Today studio.
'tenThing' is a ten-piece brass ensemble from Norway. Led by world-renowned trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth, tenThing are rapidly establishing themselves on the international scene. On Thursday's Performance Today, tenThing visit the PT studios for a chat, along with performances of works by Mozart, Grieg, and Bernstein.
In 2006, Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov wrote a cello concerto for Yo-Yo Ma. A few years ago, we aired a much-loved performance of the piece (a PT listener favorite) but a recording of the concerto wasn't commercially available until 2016. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear the widely anticipated recording of Osvaldo Golijov's "Azul", performed by cellist Yo-Yo Ma and chamber ensemble The Knights.
Pianist Emanuel Ax has won seven Grammy Awards, an Avery Fisher Prize, and he's soloed with the New York Philharmonic more than a hundred times. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Emanuel Ax gives a thrilling performance of Beethoven's last piano concerto, the Emperor Concerto.
On Monday's Performance Today, conductor Louis Langree conducts the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. And then... Gavrylyuk gives a dazzling souped-up encore of a piece by Mozart.
When Gustav Mahler wrote his Sixth Symphony, his instrumentation called for hammer blows... and percussionists around the world have had to get creative. On Saturday's Performance Today, hear the New York Philharmonic perform the emotional final movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 6.
When Gustav Mahler wrote his Sixth Symphony, his instrumentation called for hammer blows... and percussionists around the world have had to get creative. On Friday's Performance Today, take a seat as the New York Philharmonic performs the fourth movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 6, hammer and all.
What is sacred? What is worth living and dying for? According to Don Juan, the ubiquitous answer is...love. On Thursday's Performance Today, take a seat at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for an Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of "Don Juan" by Richard Strauss.
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