Performance Today®

Why does the Golden Hall at the Musikverein in Vienna sound so good? Is it the hollow space under the stage? The exact proportions of the dimensions of the hall? Whatever the reason, the acoustics are incredible. We'll go to the Golden Hall in Vienna to hear Lang Lang play Chopin on Thursday's Performance Today from APM.

Every week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We get one of our listeners on the phone to try to guess the tune, and the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking. Play along, see if you can guess the tune and the composer. Today's Puzzler contestant is Shawn Hampton from Round Rock, Texas.

Every day on Performance Today, we hear great musicians in concert. But how did they get to be so good? On Tuesday's Performance Today we'll meet double bass player David Grossman, a member of the New York Philharmonic. He'll tell us what it's like to live life at the bottom of the orchestra and how he stays on top of his game.

Solos come, solos go. In "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel, the flute takes a turn. Then the saxophone. The trombone. Most everybody else plays the melody and stops to take a breather now and then. But not the poor snare drummer. There are 4,064 snare drum taps in Bolero. The snare drummer plays the same pattern 169 times. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear a study in deep concentration for percussionists: Ravel's Bolero performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in from a concert Amsterdam.

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach moves along nicely until everything stops for a surprise solo from the harpsichord, usually the foundation of ensemble. That was unheard of in 1719, but Bach had a brand new harpsichord that he wanted to showcase. And he might have wanted to showcase the harpsichord soloist... who also happened to be the composer. This weekend on Performance Today, we'll go to San Francisco to hear members of the San Francisco Symphony play the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 while Robin Sutherland takes a star turn at the harpsichord. Plus, music for this weekend's celebration of all things Irish.

The Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach moves along nicely until everything stops for a surprise solo from the harpsichord, usually the foundation of ensemble. That was unheard of in 1719, but Bach had a brand new harpsichord that he wanted to showcase. And he might have wanted to showcase the harpsichord soloist... who also happened to be the composer. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll go to San Francisco to hear members of the San Francisco Symphony play the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 while Robin Sutherland takes a star turn at the harpsichord. Plus, music for this weekend's celebration of all things Irish.

Beethoven revolutionized the writing of symphonies, string quartets, and sonatas. And there's at least one other area where he is the measure of every composer who follows: the Piano Trio, music for piano, violin, and cello. Beethoven wrote a dozen piano trios full of seductive melodies, with harmonies of surprising tension and resolution. On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear one of those revolutionary piano trios by Beethoven, from a special concert at the Music@Menlo Festival in Menlo Park, California.

In 1764, the Mozart family went on a tour of Europe. While they were in London, Papa Mozart came down with strep throat, so the family took a room in the Chelsea neighborhood for a while so he could recover. Little Wolfgang was 8 years old. There was no TV, there were no game consoles. To pass the time, little Wolfgang amused himself by trying something he'd never done before: writing a symphony. We'll hear the Symphony No. 1 by the 8 year-old Wolfgang Mozart on Wednesday's Performance Today from APM.

Leonard Bernstein's friends knew him as a virtuoso procrastinator. One day when he was working on his show "Candide," Bernstein claimed he was having trouble putting some lyrics to music. The director knew better. "You were waterskiing all day," he said. "Now will you please sit down and write this music?" Coming up, we'll hear some of what Bernstein finally got around to writing. We'll hear Bernstein's Overture to Candide on Tuesday's Performance Today from APM.