Performance Today®

It is no surprise Richard Strauss wrote music that features exciting French Horn parts. His own father was one of the best horn players in Europe. We'll hear a concerto Strauss wrote for his father's 60th birthday. Plus, Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan sits down with PT host Fred Child at Steinway Hall in New York City to perform music with a split personality. On Tuesday's Performance Today, from APM.

Franz Schubert wrote a heartbreaking piano sonata in the fall of 1828, just about 2 months before he died at age 32. Pianist Inon Barnatan says even if Schubert was not foreseeing his own passing, it's still some of the most deeply introspective music ever written. PT Host Fred Child joins Barnatan for an exclusive conversation from Steinway Hall in New York City. On Monday's Performance Today, from APM.

Listen to Barnatan's exclusive performance and conversation with PT host Fred Child at Steinway Hall in New York.

At first, critics dismissed Maurice Ravel's string quartet as a total failure, but after Claude Debussy gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, Ravel's one and only string quartet has become a staple of the chamber music repertoire. We'll hear a recent performance in Minneapolis. Plus a rare, Gold-Medal winning performance during a major international music competition by a young Turkish Guitarist. This weekend on Performance Today, from APM.

Belgium is quite proud of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. On Friday's show we'll go to the country where the saxophone was invented and hear the PT debut of a 28 year-old Belgian saxophone soloist, Simon Diricq, as he performs with the Liège Royal Philharmonic. Also, we'll go to a concert at Walt Disney Hall, the home-base of conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. On Performance Today, from APM.

A fascinating 21st century work for guitar and orchestra by Roberto Sierra is based on a five hundred years old musical idea. We'll hear an award winning performance bya young Turkish guitarist at the JoAnn Faletta International Guitar Competition. Plus, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic conjure up a musical image of scampering children amid tall pine trees in an ancient Italian landscape with Ottorino Respighi's masterpiece, The Pines of Rome. On Thursday's Performance Today, from APM.

On Wednesday's Performance Today: new takes on older music. Ralph Vaughan Williams found inspiration from Elizabethan English music of the 1500's. We'll hear a Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis performed at the Prague Castle. Plus, Arnold Schoenberg loved the music of Brahms, but disliked the instrumentation of the piano quartet. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts the reorchestration by Schoenerg. On Performance Today, from APM.

Maurice Ravel's string quartet was mostly dismissed as a failure by his teacher, by a prestigious contest and by music critics in Paris. But ever since Claude Debussy gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, Ravel's one and only string quartet has become a staple of the chamber music repertoire. Also we hear a double piano concerto by J.S. Bach that would have been played in a busy, bustling coffeehouse in Leipzig. On Tuesday's Performance Today.

Maybe it's not as popular as Beethoven "Ode to Joy," but Anton Bruckner's towering 8th Symphony does fall among music's greatest symphonic works. We'll hear the last movement performed in Dallas, Texas. And, as a preview of our upcoming young artist in residence series this year, we sample a highlight from last season with violinist Xiang Yu playing the Bach Chaconne. On Monday's Performance Today, from APM.