Performance Today®

The Orchestra of the Swan is based in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, England. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear their graceful performance of an appropriate seasonal piece: Robert Schumann's "Spring" Symphony -- Symphony No. 1.

American mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall is a big fan of both bluegrass and Bach. So when the New Century Chamber Orchestra asked him to write a new piece, he drew on these two musical styles for inspiration. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto from a concert in San Francisco.

American mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall is a big fan of both bluegrass and Bach. So when the New Century Chamber Orchestra asked him to write a new piece, he drew on these two musical styles for inspiration. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto from a concert in San Francisco.

Get out your dancing shoes -- and a sword if you have one! On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll be dancing the Lezghinka, a traditional dance from the Caucasus, as we hear Simon Rattle conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in an explosive encore performance of Aram Khachaturian's Lezghinka.

Each week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We then get one of our listeners on the phone to try to guess the tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with our Piano Puzzler, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

The young players in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra are among the finest musicians in what might be the most talented generation in the history of music. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear tomorrow's stars in concert in Philadelphia playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol.

On Monday's Performance Today, Stephen Hough brings his poetic spirit to music by Johannes Brahms in concert in Aspen, Colorado.

Gioachino Rossini wrote a set of variations for clarinet in 1809 -- thirty years before the saxophone was even invented. But those clarinet variations just happen to work beautifully on soprano saxophone. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Rossini's Variations for Soprano Saxophone from a concert in Dallas.

Conductor Kenneth Woods, who leads the Orchestra of the Swan in England, counts himself very lucky to have discovered the music of Hans Gal. On Friday's Performance Today, Woods will introduce us to music by 20th century composer Hans Gal, and tell us why it's so important to him.