Performance Today®

January is not an ideal time to travel from London to Minnesota with delicate baroque instruments. Finely crafted instruments are not made to withstand Minnesota's wintery low humidity; bows can buckle and bridges can crack. As the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment quickly learned, there is nothing to do except to glue, humidify, and persevere. Coming up on Wednesday's Performance Today, Rachel Podger and members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment play a warm concerto by Antonio Vivaldi in concert in the Minnesota chill.

When war broke out in 1914, French composer Claude Debussy refused to go near a piano or compose any music; he said that France could neither laugh nor weep while so many of her sons were dying. As the war continued, however, Debussy decided to write music with an especially French feel as a way to "give proof, however small it may be...that French thought will not be annihilated." On Tuesday's Performance Today we'll hear Debussy's very French Sonata for Flute, Harp, and Viola from a concert in Oslo, Norway.

Beethoven is a musical giant; a composer who revolutionized music for piano, string quartet, and orchestra. Coming up on Monday's Performance Today we'll hear his first symphony, which Beethoven wrote back when he was primarily known as a performer, not a composer.

In 1916, critics complained that 26-year-old Sergei Prokofiev's music was too modern, too hard on the ears, and lacking a sense of history. So that summer Prokofiev left for vacation with a plan. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Prokofiev's classically-inspired rebuttal, his Symphony No. 1. Plus, composer Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler.

If you walk through the city of Paris at night, the river is a brooding presence. American composer Virgil Thomson wrote that the Seine is "so deep and its face so quiet that it scarcely seems to move." On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Thomson's musical portrait of the river Seine performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Performance Today has invited musicians from the top American music conservatories to perform in the PT studios. On Thursday's show, clarinetist Sang Yoon Kim is back as young artist in residence to play music by Charles-Marie Widor and share some unconventional ways to practice music.

We're excited to showcase our third young artist in residence for the season, clarinetist Sang Yoon Kim. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear a virtuosic suite by Sarasate based on music from Carmen. Plus, composer Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler.

Peter and Zoltan Katona are a globetrotting guitar duo from Hungary. Their energetic playing spans numerous genres including flamenco, jazz, and Baroque music. On Tuesday's Performance Today, the Katona Twins perform two works of their own in Seattle, Washington.

Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 is dramatic, romantic, virtuosic music for piano and orchestra. On Monday's Performance Today, international superstar pianist Lang Lang teams up to perform it with a top American orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony.