Performance Today®

Beethoven wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 when he was living in Vienna. We'll hear it from a concert IN Vienna. Played by an orchestra that was founded to play music by Beethoven. Rudolf Buchbinder at the piano, and conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, on today's show.

Edvard Grieg was 44 years old when he wrote his Violin Sonata No. 3. He was at a point in his life when he was, in his words, "turning toward wider horizons." We'll hear Grieg's violin sontata from a concert at the Virginia Arts Festival, plus the many moods of the Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius. That's all coming up on today's show.

Violinist Gil Shaham has been going to the Aspen Music Festival since he was ten; he was a student there, he met his wife there, and now he goes back every summer for the fresh mountain air and to play music. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Gil Shaham and the Aspen Festival Orchestra play music by Bach.

Violinist Gil Shaham has been going to the Aspen Music Festival since he was ten; he was a student there, he met his wife there, and now he goes back every summer for the fresh mountain air and to play music. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Gil Shaham and the Aspen Festival Orchestra play music by Bach.

Pianist Richard Goode is 71 years old; conductor Herbert Blomstedt is 87. Recently, they pooled their 158 years of experience together for concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear their commanding performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27.

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer; we then get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to name the composer and the hidden tune. This week, however, our Piano Puzzler has a twist. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll have two callers on the line -- a lovely couple from New York City.

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 is music of glorious contradictions. Delicate, with an undercurrent of aggression; full of both vivid light, and creeping shadow. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll take look back at the very definition of avant-garde, on the way from a recent concert in Warsaw, Poland.

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.