According to conductor Nicholas McGegan, Frederick the Great used to brew his coffee in a very special way. Instead of mere water, his morning java was made with...leftover champagne. How would that taste? Fred finds out on this weekend's Performance Today, when he joins McGegan for a very unique cup of joe at the Aspen Music Festival.
Over the course of four bloody months in 1916, more than a million soldiers died at the Battle of the Somme. This Friday marks the 100th anniversary of the death of George Butterworth, a young composer in the British Army. In his honor, we'll take a look back through music written by men who served in the First World War.
Cellist Shannon Hayden has always planned for a life in the arts.
Pianist Stephen Hough remembers the terrible car accident that nearly ended his life with crystal clarity. On Thursday's Performance Today, Hough discusses facing mortality and returning to the beauty of this world.
The Aspen Music Festival appears utterly graceful. But, as Chief Piano Technician Peter Sumner puts it, "it's a bit like a duck swimming on a pond; all you see is the duck gliding across, but underneath everything is paddling like crazy." On Wednesday's Performance Today, Sumner gives us a behind-the-scenes peek at what it's like to maintain the Festival's 200 pianos.
Alisa Weilerstein grew up going to the Aspen Music Festival almost every summer of her childhood. There, she learned about music and life, and made incredible friendships that she still cherishes. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Alisa Weilerstein in concert and in conversation at the Aspen Music Festival.
Every day this week, we'll have highlights from one of the greatest music festivals on the planet: the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll begin Gil Shaham's emotional performance of J.S. Bach's Violin Concerto in A minor.
Every week composer Bruce Adolphe joins us for a musical game; our Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer, and we get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to guess the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with the Piano Puzzler, on this weekend's Performance Today.
On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear music by two members of the Bach family. First, a rarely played symphony by CPE Bach from a concert in Copenhagen. And then, an Orchestral Suite by Papa Bach, Johann Sebastian, from a concert in Switzerland.
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