Performance Today®

He was an obscure dead composer, but Mozart loved his work. He even arranged some of the old guy's keyboard pieces for string quartet. In today's show, the Orion String Quartet performs some of those curious Mozart arrangements. And that nearly-forgotten composer? That would be Johann Sebastian Bach.

It just wouldn't be New Year's Day without some Strauss from Vienna. Today, we get the whole Strauss family. Franz Welser-Most conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in works by Eduard, Josef, and Johann, Jr., from the annual New Year's Day concert in Vienna. Plus, we'll look ahead to several important milestones we'll be celebrating in 2013. Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner both turn 200 this year.

If you joined us during the past year, you know that 2012 was a big year on Performance Today. We paid visits to a number of big summer music festivals and met some of the stars of tomorrow there. Inaugurated a PT Young Artist-in-Residence series. Observed several important composer anniversaries. And all year long we brought you memorable performances from concert halls around the country and around the world. Join us in closing out 2012 today with festive music, including the overture to "Die Fledermaus," by the Waltz King, Johann Strauss, Jr.

In a hall that doesn't even feature a real pipe organ, Andrew Davis and the New York Philharmonic still managed to pull out all the stops in a performance of Camille Saint-Saens' Symphony Number 3, the Organ Symphony. Kent Tritle, the New York Philharmonic's resident organist, had to make do with an electronic instrument. We'll hear their performance, from a concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

Vienna's Musikverein is one of those spectacular old European concert halls. The walls and ceilings shimmer with real gold. And the acoustics are every bit as magnificent as the decor. We'll hear pianist Lang Lang in a recital at the Musikverein, playing Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata. Plus, we'll hear from a special New Year's Day concert there. Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic rattled those golden walls and ceilings with Johann Strauss, Jr.'s "Thunder and Lightning Polka."

Call it what you like, the conductor controversy or the soloist squabble or even the Mozart mess. In today's show we'll have the story behind the cadenza kerfuffle, a disagreement between pianist Helene Grimaud and conductor Claudio Abbado that resulted in a scuttled CD project and several cancelled concerts. And we'll hear the Mozart piano concerto that started it all.

Usually, when we hear about some newly-rediscovered piece of music, it's in some dusty monastery in Europe. In today's show, the story of Gustav Mahler's Blumine, which went missing for about 80 years and turned up in the library at Yale University. We'll hear a performance of Mahler's lost-and-found work, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Merry Christmas from all of us at PT. On the way for Christmas, 2012, we'll bring you some of the best and brightest holiday performances from all over the globe. From the magnificent concert halls of Europe, to churches large and small, to a warm and inviting Irish pub, it's our annual tour of Christmas Around the World.

On this Christmas Eve, as Santa gets ready for his biggest night of the year, we'll take a musical look at Santa through the centuries. We'll hear everything from 13th century song of praise to St. Nicholas, to the adorable Tokyo FM Boys' Choir, singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." And a collection of lullabies for the Christ child, from concerts all around the world.