Performance Today®

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of composer Richard Wagner, a titan of classical music. But what is it about Wagner's music that has made it so appealing to so many people for so long? Opera lover and writer Will Berger joins host Fred Child to tackle that question. He says the answer hovers around the intersection of brilliance and humanity. Celebrate Wagner's anniversary with Will Berger, with Bruce Adolphe and with music on Wednesday's Performance Today. Also, in honor of Wagner's bicentennial you can listen to the entirety of the Ring Cycle here from Classical MPR.

This month, soprano Deborah Voigt has been on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York singing the role of Brunhilde in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. We asked Voigt what Wagner's music means to her as a singer. Her first answer was "LONG," but her second answer showed how she really feels. "You will constantly discover things in Wagner's music that you didn't hear" the first or even fifth time, she said. "It's just so rich." Deborah Voigt talks about the composer who is about to celebrate his 200th anniversary on Tuesday's Performance Today.

Throughout this school year Performance Today been featuring some of the most talented young musicians from conservatories and schools of music around the country. On Monday, we welcome our new Young Artist in Residence: violinist Timothy Kantor. He'll perform in the studio every day this week, starting on Monday with a sonata by Felix Mendelssohn.

Free MP3 downloads, video and interviews with the talented violinist Timothy Kantor.

In 1908 Maurice Ravel wrote an enchanting piece for solo piano called Ondine or water fairy. Ravel often did orchestral versions of his piano pieces, but not this one. He left it as a piano solo. However, that hasn't stopped others from trying. On this weekend's Performance Today we'll hear a fascinating musical experiment. The Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra had Louis Lortie play Ravel's solo piano version. Then, without a break, they played a 1990 orchestration of the piece. We'll hear them back to back, just as they were done on stage in Brazil.

Oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. What a weird combination. Can that possibly work for anything? On Friday's Performance Today we'll meet a band who make it work for just about everything. They call themselves Calefax and we'll hear them perform a concert in the Netherlands.

Richard Strauss knew horns. His father Franz was among the great horn players of the day and he often listened to his father rehearse and perform. When Richard Strauss was 18 years old, he wrote a concerto for his father--and exceptionally difficult concerto, no less. On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear Philip Myers take the solo role with the New York Philharmonic in a performance of a horn concerto for dad.

"Good composers borrow, great composers steal." That quote is often attributed to Igor Stravinsky, one of the most original composers of the 20th century. Even when Stravinsky pilfered musical ideas, though, he made them very much his own. When Stravinsky wrote ballet music in 1919, he lifted tunes from about two centuries earlier, but tweaked them enough to put his own stamp on them. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear the result: The Pulcinella Suite by Igor Stravinsky from a concert in Cologne, Germany.

In 1908 Maurice Ravel wrote an enchanting piece for solo piano called Ondine or water fairy. Ravel often did orchestral versions of his piano pieces, but not this one. He left it as a piano solo. However, that hasn't stopped others from trying. On Tuesday's Performance Today we'll hear a fascinating musical experiment. The Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra had Louis Lortie play Ravel's solo piano version. Then, without a break, they played a 1990 orchestration of the piece. We'll hear them back to back, just as they were done on stage in Brazil.