Performance Today®

The bells are jangling in rhythm with the trotting horses, the air is crisp and frosty, but we're warm and toasty in our winter gear. We have music for the season on today's show. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler!

One measure of the lasting influence of a piece of music is how many other musicians have given it their own twist. Join us for a full hour of some of the fun, creative music that The Nutcracker, by Peter Tchaikovsky, has inspired in other composers, arrangers, and musicians.

Voces8 is a vocal octet, founded in London in 2003. They sing a wide range of music, from medieval and Renaissance choral works to jazz and 21st-century pieces. They also love to teach the art of choral singing, mentoring the next generation of singers in a group called the Voces8 Scholars. We'll hear holiday music from Voces8 and the Voces8 Scholars on today's show.

'Tis the season for winter holiday music. Join us today to hear a wide range of music for Hannukah and Christmas. And Bruce Adolphe has a special Piano Puzzler for us as well!

In 1936, Carlos Chavez wrote a symphony based on the melodies and percussive sounds of Mexican indigenous music, and now his piece is played around the world. On today's show, hear the Polish Radio Orchestra play Chavez's Symphony No. 2 (the Sinfonia India), from a concert in Warsaw, Poland.

The ballet world is filled with images of graceful, colorful birds: Swan Lake. The Firebird. A famous bluebird in Sleeping Beauty. And a ballet about pigeons? On today's show, we'll hear music from The Two Pigeons, a ballet written in 1886 by French composer Andre Messager.

'Tis the season for winter holiday music. Join us today to hear a wide range of music for Hannukah and Christmas. And Bruce Adolphe has a special Piano Puzzler for us as well!

In 2022, the Apollo Chamber Players commissioned a work by composer Wang Jie. Wang Jie, also trained as an organist, wrote the piece for the unusual combination of pipe organ and string quartet. On today's show, we'll hear the Apollo Chamber Players and organist Daryl Robinson play the world premiere of The Night When You See Again by Wang Jie.

A few years ago, violinist and arranger Colin Jacobsen stumbled across a scratchy old recording of a traditional klezmer tune called Haneros Haluli ('These Lights'). Jacobsen says that the music went straight to his heart. We'll hear Colin Jacobsen and The Knights play Jacobsen's own arrangement of Haneros Haluli on today's show.