Performance Today®

A French gentleman named Alphonse de Lamartine wrote a poem suggesting that every single thing we do--from the moment we're born until our last breath, every step, every meal, every job, every kiss, every heartbreak--they're all just preludes to the real show. The show that begins when we exhale for the very last time. Lamartine's ambitious poem inspired ambitious music by Franz Liszt called Les Preludes. On Performance Today we'll hear Liszt try to capture the meaning of life and death over the course of 15 minutes of music performed by the Berlin Philharmonic.

At 25 years old, Narek Hakhnazaryan is one of the great young cellists in the world today. He won a Gold Medal at the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow despite receiving a notoriously offensive slight from a conductor. Hakhnazaryan has put all of that behind him and now he's introducing himself to the finest orchestras around the world. On Monday's Performance Today we'll catch up with him in Hamburg, Germany, playing the Cello Concerto by Robert Schumann.

It was a brave choice in 1939. Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly wrote a set of shimmering variations on a folk song called "Fly, Peacock, Fly," a song about escaping from tyranny. His piece was promptly banned by the Hungarian authorities in 1940, but JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic have brought it back to life in a recent concert. On this weekenda€™s Performance Today, we'll hear the once-banned work from a live performance in Buffalo, New York.

Just like any summer camp, the Interlochen Arts Camp in northern Michigan has rituals. Some are musical -- the annual performance of the Interlochen Theme -- and some involve not notes, but ice cream. We'll hear a little of both on Friday's Performance Today.

Latvian composer Peteris Vasks was once asked if his music contained sadness. He answered, "Perhaps... but it also contains a great deal of idealism. I go through pessimism finally to confirm... that I say 'yes' until my last breath to the beauty of this world." On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear a piece called Epifania, by Peteris Vasks, in concert from Estonia.

The Calidore String Quartet is joining Performance Today this week, as our Young Artists in Residence. The four young string players are all in their 20s and all students at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. It takes musical skill, communication skills and interpersonal skills to be successful as a quartet or, as one member of the Calidore String Quartet put it, "the original reality show." The Calidore String Quartet plays music by Mendelssohn on Wednesday's Performance Today.

It was a brave choice in 1939. Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly wrote a set of shimmering variations on a folk song called "Fly, Peacock, Fly," a song about escaping from tyranny. His piece was promptly banned by the Hungarian authorities in 1940, but JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic have brought it back to life in a recent concert. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear the once-banned work from a live performance in Buffalo, New York.

Silicon Valley is a center for technological creativity and musical creativity. On Monday's Performance Today we'll spend some time at one of the great American music festivals, Music@Menlo, in Palo Alto, California. Tune in for everything from early English music to a rollicking Carnival of the Animals.

When Alessio Bax was five years old, he desperately wanted to play the organ. There was one problem: his legs were not long enough for his feet to reach the pedals. So he took piano lessons, impatient for the day when he could switch. Wouldn't you know it...he fell in love with the piano. Alessio Bax joins Fred Child in the studio on Monday's Performance Today to play music by Bach and Brahms.