Performance Today®

It's long been known that music has the ability to help transport us out of our daily lives. It's one of the reasons so many of us listen to it. In today's show, we have a whole hour of music about other realms of being, and higher planes of existence. "Visions of Another World," by Karim Al-Zand, "Music of the Spheres," by Josef Strauss, and a Transcendental Etude by Franz Liszt. Plus an ethereal Norwegian vision of heaven from the women of Trio Mediaeval (pictured).

Pianist Jenny Lin joins host Fred Child in the PT studios today. She's got a new CD out, "Get Happy," a set of virtuoso arrangements of Broadway show tunes written by some of her fellow pianists. Lin says, "You really have to remember that the melody is first," and confesses that she listened to plenty of Sinatra (whom she adores) in preparation for this project. On today's show, Jenny Lin talks about the project and performs five selections from the CD.

Pianist Jenny Lin joins Fred in the studio to play show tune favorites.

Every December, an unusual pilgrimage takes place. Thousands of people flock to the small prairie town of Northfield, Minnesota. They're going to hear the annual St. Olaf College Christmas Festival. It's not so much a concert as it is a worship service in music. Even though the school is small, the program has a following across the country, including national broadcasts on public radio and TV. We'll hear highlights from the 2012 St. Olaf Christmas Festival, which took place just last weekend in Northfield.

Ballet can be a wonderful medium for drama and story-telling. It can also be a pure, unbridled celebration of the human body, about grace and speed and athleticism. We've got both sides covered in today's show. Sergei Prokofiev set Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" to music, focusing on the conflict and tragedy of the story. And Alberto Ginastera's ballet "Estancia" is a high-energy tribute to the cowboys of his native Argentina. We'll hear highlights from both ballets, from concerts in Germany and Brazil.

Richard Strauss reached back to the Middle Ages to find a thoroughly modern character, the class clown. Till Eulenspiegel was a legendary German folk-hero who thumbed his nose at just about everybody. His antics got him in trouble with the authorities, and eventually earned him a one-way trip to the gallows. Thomas Dausgaard and the Danish National Symphony play Strauss' rollicking tone poem, "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," in concert in Till's home country of Germany.

We all have our little morning rituals. Sometimes it's just habit. But when it's intentional, the way you start your day says a lot about you. For Pianist Andras Schiff, it's almost always the same. He spends an hour or so playing preludes and fugues from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Schiff never tires of it. He says, "As long as I live and I am lucky to be in good health, I want to continue to explore the mysteries of this music." This weekend, we'll feature music and conversation with Andras Schiff and PT host Fred Child, on Bach's vast and mysterious Well-Tempered Clavier.

Was he the most talented unknown composer of the 20th century? Some called him the Canadian Mozart. Andre Mathieu was an astonishing prodigy as a composer and pianist. He played his own compositions at Carnegie Hall when he was 11. He beat the young Leonard Bernstein in a composition competition when he was 13. But he was also deeply troubled. He withdrew from public life before his 20s, and died, already forgotten, at age 39 in 1968. We'll hear the Tucson Symphony in concert, playing a set of Ballet Scenes by Andre Mathieu. Plus, we'll wrap up our series with pianist Andras Schiff on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

The ancient Greeks were onto something when they assigned the god Apollo to two very important functions. One of his jobs was to carry the sun across the sky each day in his chariot. The other was to be the patron of music. The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra is better known as Apollo's Fire. They're with host Fred Child in the PT studios today, bringing light and music by Bach and Vivaldi. Plus, Day 3 of music and conversation with pianist Andras Schiff on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.