Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

May 6, 2015: The Piano Puzzler

May 6, 2015: The Piano Puzzler

Composer Bruce Adolphe joins us with this week's Piano Puzzler. We'll hear members of the Vienna Philharmonic literally getting up and walking away as they play Haydn's Farewell Symphony. And it's off to Warsaw, Poland for a set of Chopin Mazurkas played as folk music. Tune in to today's show to hear it all.

May 5, 2015: Meta Beethoven

May 5, 2015: Meta Beethoven

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.

May 4, 2015: The expansion of Edvard Grieg

May 4, 2015: The expansion of Edvard Grieg

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.

May 2, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

May 2, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

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.

May 1, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

May 1, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

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.

April 30, 2015: 158 years of musical experience

April 30, 2015: 158 years of musical experience

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.

April 29, 2015: Piano Puzzler with a twist

April 29, 2015: Piano Puzzler with a twist

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.

April 28, 2015: Music of glorious contradictions

April 28, 2015: Music of glorious contradictions

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.

April 27, 2015: Spring in Shakespeare's hometown

April 27, 2015: Spring in Shakespeare's hometown

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.

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