Performance Today®

There are workaholics, and then there's Valery Gergiev. Gergiev maintains an almost break-neck pace of conducting engagements all over the world, rarely taking a day off. One interviewer recently asked him why he works so hard. Gergiev replied, "At some point, I think, it's difficult to stop." In today's show, the man who doesn't know the meaning of down time leads the London Symphony in Brahms' Haydn Variations, from a concert last month in London.

The locals call it Fingal's Cave, a glittering cavern in a lonely outcropping off the coast of Scotland, where wind and sky, land and sea all come crashing together. Felix Mendelssohn had heard about it, wanted to see it for himself. But he was a landlubber who was out of his element. He turned a particularly violent shade of green that day. Today, Gustavo Dudamel demonstrates his sea legs, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the "Hebrides Overture," inspired by Mendelssohn's trip to Scotland in 1829.

How many millions of kids have watched music videos and were absolutely sure that they were going to grow up to be rock guitarists? Probably just about every kid out there. Jordan Dodson was one of them. And like just about every other kid his age, he didn't grow up to be a rock-and-roller. But he did grow up to be a guitarist. And a fantastic one at that. Dodson switched from rock to classical when he was 16, and is now one of the top young guitarists of his generation. Jordan Dodson is our newest PT Young Artist-in-Residence, and joins host Fred Child in the PT studios all week.

Meet our newest Young Artist in Residence: Jordan Dodson. He studies guitar at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

The life of a concert artist can be a lonely one, not just socially, but artistically. That's why so many top soloists love playing chamber music as well. Two terrific young soloists recently joined host Fred Child for music and conversation, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan. Weilerstein said this about Barnatan, "When you have a really great chamber musician, there's always just so much to bounce off of, to give back, and this is one of the most rewarding things about playing together." This weekend we'll hear their interview and excerpts from a Rachmaninoff cello sonata.

The life of a concert artist can be a lonely one, not just socially, but artistically. That's why so many top soloists love playing chamber music as well. Two terrific young soloists recently joined host Fred Child for music and conversation, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan. Weilerstein said this about Barnatan, "When you have a really great chamber musician, there's always just so much to bounce off of, to give back, and this is one of the most rewarding things about playing together." Today we'll hear their interview and excerpts from a Rachmaninoff cello sonata.

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan--two superstars in their own right--join PT host Fred Child on stage for music and conversation.

Much of the nation is locked in a deep freeze this week. Parts of the Northeast and Midwest are seeing record low temperatures, with wind chills far below zero. If you need a little warming up, tune in to the show today. We've got warm and engaging performances from the Sun Belt, including a sunny wind sextet from the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina, and a sultry tango from Savannah, Georgia.

Today's show is a celebration of ambiguity, that delicious is-it-or-isn't-it uncertainty. In "ZZ's Dream," composer Osvaldo Golijov (pictured) asks the question, "Am I a man dreaming I'm a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming I'm a man?" We'll hear it from the Spoleto Festival. And from Dmitri Shostakovich, who could be maddeningly hard to pin down, we'll hear the final movement from his Fifth Symphony. Is it a celebration of the Stalinist regime, as the Soviets claimed? Or a subtly-encoded cry of opposition? And we'll hear from a man who makes his living being deliberately ambiguous. Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler.