American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
Franz Liszt wrote a piano sonata in a fit of artistic rapture after reading Dante's "Divine Comedy," the epic 14th century poem about heaven and hell. Join the audience as pianist Paul Lewis gives a virtuosic performance of Liszt's Dante Sonata on Friday's Performance Today.
It's a snapshot of today's classical music scene - we'll have highlights from recent concerts in Paris, Brussels, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, as well as from concert halls across the United States. And, it's day-two with our Young Artist in Residence, 16 year-old violinist Phoenix Avalon, on Thursday's Performance Today.
Phoenix Avalon knew he wanted to play the violin before he even really knew how to say it. Meet 16-year-old Phoenix Avalon, PT's Young Artist in Residence, on Wednesday's Performance Today.
Listen to in-studio interviews with host Fred Child and exclusive musical performances by violinist Phoenix Avalon and pianist Hsin-I Huang.
The final movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 is epic. 30 minutes of emotional energy that bursts with dramatic tension, culminating in three powerful hammer blows. We'll hear the Boston Symphony perform it in concert, with conductor Andris Nelsons, on Tuesday's Performance Today.
With some reluctance, Frederic Chopin left Poland for Vienna at the age of 20, carrying an urn filled with soil from his beloved home country. He never returned to Poland, but the composer, literally and musically, was never far from his homeland. In 1849, Chopin was laid to rest at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, and the urn from Poland is still at his side. On Monday's Performance Today, hear Wu Han in concert, playing Frederic Chopin's Polonaise in B-flat Major.
On Saturday's Performance Today, hear the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra's world premiere performance of Jabberwocky, by composer Anthony DiLorenzo. Also featured are performances by the Shanghai String Quartet, Miami String Quartet, the London Symphony Orchestra, and more.
After composing his string quartet known as "Intimate Voices", Jean Sibelius wrote, "It's the kind of music that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death." Sibelius had just been diagnosed with cancer - he believed he had been given a death sentence - yet the composer lived another 48 years. Hear the quartet with a life of its own, String Quartet in D minor 'Voces intimae', on Friday's Performance Today.
It's a story of revenge. King Frederick the Great tried to humiliate Johann Sebastian Bach by giving him an awkward tune and asking him to improvise around it. The king was good, but Bach was great. The story and Bach's revenge, played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Thursday's Performance Today.
