Performance Today®

Camille Saint-Saens wrote The Carnival of the Animals for a private party and hoped that would be the last time it was ever heard. He thought it was too goofy to be published or taken seriously. It's now his most popular piece all around the world. We'll hear the hopping kangaroos, the braying donkeys and even the rattling bones of this piece from a concert in Buffalo, New York on Friday's Performance Today

The great voice-over actor, Mel Blanc, was born on this day, May 30th, in 1908. He created voices for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, and so many memorable characters in Warner Brothers cartoons. We'll celebrate Mel Blanc's birthday with a few excerpts from classic cartoons, and highlight the classical music they so often featured.

It was an unusually hot day in Paris: May 29th, 1913. But the heat of the late-day sun was nothing compared to the inferno generated by that day's performance at the city's big ballet company. It was an event that would change music forever: the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's ballet, the Rite of Spring. To mark the 100th anniversary of that famous and infamous premiere, music writer Alex Ross tells the story of that musical riot. And we'll go to Dallas to hear Jaap van Zweden lead a concert performance by the Dallas Symphony, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was an avid music-lover, and a fine flutist. He even wrote a few respectable flute concertos. Which presented a dilemma for his court composer, CPE Bach. Bach was obligated to write concertos for Frederick the Great, but could his be *better* than the King's own concertos? (Never wise to show up the King!) The answer, apparently, was yes. The Flute Concerto in D minor by CPE Bach combines elegance, wit, and virtuosity in a piece that the King found eminently play-able. Fred Child takes us to a concert performance in Regensburg, Germany, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

King Frederick the Great dared J.S. Bach. Could Bach improvise a three-part fugue on a weird melody? Then, he double dared him. Could Bach write a six-part fugue on the same tune? It seemed impossible, but Bach was Bach. Bach's answer to that challenge from King Fred, on Monday's Performance Today.

This month, soprano Deborah Voigt has been on stage at the Metropolitan Opera in New York singing the role of Brunnhilde 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.

Some musicians find teaching to be a drag on their performing careers. For violinist Tim Kantor, it's exactly the opposite. He says his students not only re-focus his energy on the joy of musical discovery, they constantly inspire him with new ideas. Tim Kantor will close his week as PT's Young Artist in Residence with a set of musical bon-bons by Fritz Kreisler and Jean Sibelius. PT host Fred Child welcomes him to the studio on Friday's Performance Today.

The Orchestra of St. Luke's spent four years searching for a new Principal Conductor. They wanted *just* the right chemistry between their ensemble and a leader, and they found it in 35 year-old Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado . PT host Fred Child joins him at the New York home of the Orchestra of St. Luke's today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday) for conversation about that mysterious chemistry between an orchestra and a conductor, and for music. In a PT exclusive performance, they'll play the Symphony No. 4, by Robert Schumann, on Thursday's 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.