Performance Today®

On Wednesday's Performance Today, Bruce joins us for our weekly Piano Puzzler. Play along and see if you can name the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating.

Once upon a time, there was a clever little boy named Tom Thumb. His parents sent him to live in the woods; a fairly horrible state of affairs. And once upon a time, there was a composer who loved children's stories, but wanted them to sound less brutal. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear the result: Maurice Ravel's softening of the Mother Goose Tales.

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 Monday's Performance Today we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto No. 1.

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi once said, "I wonder why no one has made the fountains of Rome 'sing,' for they are, after all, the very voice of the city." No one else had done it, so Respighi did. On this weekend's Performance Today we'll hear "The Fountains of Rome," Respighi's homage to the unique voice of Rome.

The opening of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is incredibly memorable. You can sing along with every bit of it: the trumpet, the timpani, the big dramatic chords. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear the entirety of Strauss' most spine-chilling composition.

When the 25-year-old Mozart was working in Munich, his pal Friedrich Ramm played oboe in the local orchestra. In his spare time between rehearsals, Mozart wrote a special quartet for Friedrich. On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear Mozart's music for a friend from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi once said, "I wonder why no one has made the fountains of Rome 'sing,' for they are, after all, the very voice of the city." No one else had done it, so Respighi did. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll hear "The Fountains of Rome," Respighi's homage to the unique voice of Rome.

We met young American violinist Will Hagen this summer at the Aspen Festival, where he was a member of a student quartet. On Tuesday's Performance Today he'll make his solo debut on PT, playing a violin concerto by Saint-Saens.

On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear a concert from Shakespeare's hometown. The poetically named Orchestra of the Swan playing music by Robert Schumann.