Performance Today®

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.

In May 2010, Tennessee was hit with terrible floods. The home of the Nashville Symphony suffered nearly $40 million in damages. Despite losses, the Nashville Symphony became a symbol of recovery, and the concert hall was brought back to life in less than 8 months. On Wednesday's Performance Today, take a seat and hear the Nashville Symphony perform music by Sibelius, from a concert at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Pianist Dizhou Zhao is winner of numerous competition prizes, and is also a winner of Astral Artist's 2012 National Auditions. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear Dizhou Zhao play "Sonatina" by Liqing Yang... it's a beautiful work by one of the great Chinese composers of the 20th century

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 had used to conduct the premiere of his Symphony No. 2 in 1908. On Tuesday's Performance Today, take a seat with us at Jones Hall in Houston, and hear the Houston Symphony perform Symphony No. 2, by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

For 27 years, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote relatively conservative music for the court of King Frederick the Great. Then, in 1768, the composer was permitted to break out of the box. He moved to Hamburg, and his music began to sound strikingly modern. On Saturday's Performance Today, hear C.P.E. Bach's Sinfonia in C major, from a concert in Athens, Georgia.