Performance Today®

Music writer and critic remembers the legendary Glenn Gould.

Few of us are straight arrows, maintaining a predictable arc throughout our lives. We veer off course, careening at times, before coming to rest at the end of our days. Pianist Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations was the hallmark of a young man, shot from a tightly-strung bow. Insanely fast tempos, wild energy. You could almost call it reckless. But his trajectory changed over the years. His 1981 re-recording of the piece bears little resemblance to the earlier one. We'll sample both recordings today, on what would have been Gould's 80th birthday.

The very first Van Cliburn International Piano Competition got underway exactly 50 years ago, on September 24, 1962, in Fort Worth, Texas. In today's show, we'll celebrate a half-century of spectacular music-making from deep in the heart of Texas. We'll hear from a number of past competitors, including Jeffrey Kahane, Olga Kern, Jon Nakamatsu, and the very first winner in 1962, Ralph Votapek.

The Emerson String Quartet is one of the top quartets in the world. Part of the reason for their success has been their consistency. They haven't had a personnel change since 1979, the year cellist David Finckel joined the group. But David Finckel recently announced that at the end of this season, he will be leaving the quartet to pursue other projects. The Emersons have a busy season this year, ramping up to the big goodbye in the spring. In today's show, we'll hear from a concert they gave in Athens, Georgia.

All summer long, PT has been dropping in on concerts at the Proms, the big summer music festival in London. On Friday, our final visit of the 2012 season. Murray Perahia solos in the Piano Concerto Number 4 by Beethoven. And composer Eric Whitacre, a rock star in the world of choral music, directs the Eric Whitacre Singers and the BBC Singers in a surprising, surreal transformation of a Bach chorale.

Two weeks ago, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago wrapped up its 2012 season. PT's own Fred Child was there, hosting the final concerts of the season. We'll hear highlights from a very special concert from Ravinia that featured cellist Yo-Yo Ma and a remarkable young ensemble from New York called the Knights. They played music by Thomas Ades and Robert Schumann.

The Emerson String Quartet is one of the top quartets in the world. Part of the reason for their success has been their consistency. They haven't had a personnel change since 1979, the year cellist David Finckel joined the group. But David Finckel recently announced that at the end of this season, he will be leaving the quartet to pursue other projects. The Emersons have a busy season this year, ramping up to the big goodbye in the spring. In today's show, we'll hear from a concert they gave in Athens, Georgia.

Efficiency experts would have loved Mozart. Some composers spend years, even decades, writing a single symphony. But in 1783, Mozart proved that it's possible to get the job done in just four days. We'll hear Mozart's weekend masterpiece, his Linz Symphony, from a concert at the Music Academy of the West in California. The always efficient Nicholas McGegan conducts.

Composer Nico Muhly had a mad, brilliant idea for a new piece this year. He looked at the world around him, at the way people and animals, even insects, moved around. And the more he thought about it, about the rhythm and grace and power involved in getting from point A to point B, the more he thought he could make music out of it. And he was right. Today, we'll hear the world premiere of Gait, by Nico Muhly, from a concert last month at the Proms in London.