Performance Today®

The sonorous call of the Shofar, a ram's horn, is especially significant for the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. We recognize the start of the high holiday with a performance of Ernst Bloch's Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra, which imitates the booming sound of the Shofar. We have this week's Piano Puzzler, plus music from Scandinavia, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

Simone Dinnerstein talks about the enduring appeal of songs by Leonard Cohen. She'll introduce us to a new piece for piano based on Cohen's music. Plus we hear from star violinist Leonidas Kavakos on a rarely performed Szymanowski concerto, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

In the mid-1500s, astronomer Nicholas Copernicus came up with a radical theory. The idea that the planets go around the sun, not around the earth. The annual summer music festival in Lugano, Switzerland has something similar. There, things don't revolve around a sun, but around Martha Argerich. We'll visit the Martha Argerich Project, a month-long festival where young, up-and-coming players get to rehearse and perform with the living legend of the piano, on Monday's Performance Today.

It's the final weekend of the summer season. Labor Day weekend. We'll hear summertime music from concerts in Dallas, in Minneapolis, and in New York City. Plus, Bruce Adolphe joins us for this week's piano puzzler, on this weekend's Performance Today.

It's the final weekend of the summer season. Labor Day weekend. We'll hear summertime music from concerts in Dallas, in Minneapolis, and in New York City. Plus, a Gold Medal performance from Stanislav Khristenko, winner of the Cleveland Piano Competition. On Friday's Performance Today.

Listen to this live performance by Brooklyn Rider from the Minnesota State Fair.

When Johann Sebastian Bach arrived at the court of King Frederick the Great, the King had a wickedly convoluted little tune that he gave to Bach. He asked Bach to improvise around it. No problem for the old master. Coming up, a gorgeous Trio Sonata that Bach wrote, based on the King's little tune. It's on Thursday's Performance Today, from a concert at the Music@Menlo Festival, in Silicon Valley.

In the past 10 years, many classical music organizations in the US have struggled to make ends meet so, while disheartening, it was not a big a surprise to hear that the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington was shutting down. But it was a big surprise a year later to hear that the festival had re-organized, re-energized and was restarting, bigger and better than ever. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll hear the story of the re-ignited Bellingham Festival of Music with musical proof in the form of Bach.

For many fans of the Proms, the big summer music festival in London, this was the feel-good story of the summer. Nigel Kennedy was on stage with a group of young string players from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine. Everyone could agree, it was a wonderful opportunity for these young musicians. NOT everyone could agree, though, with Nigel Kennedy's characterization of the state of Israel when he spoke from the stage. The music from that performance, and the controversy surrounding it, on Tuesday's Performance Today.