Performance Today®

It might seem to be an unlikely partnership: classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein and singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. On the surface their musical worlds sound very different, but Dinnerstein says when you strip away the details like genre, and instrument and even notation, at the core "what we have in common has to do with emotion and color." On Thursday's Performance Today, Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt discuss finding each other and on finding common musical ground. They'll also play music from their new CD collaboration called "Night."

The long wait is over... in St. Paul, at least. While their colleagues across the Mississippi River at the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis are still locked in a contract dispute, for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra the six month work stoppage is over. The ensemble will return to the concert stage next week. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll sample the sound of the SPCO in concert with Hans Graf conducting the Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel.

On Tuesday's PT we'll feature two venerable pianists in concert playing a pair of masterpieces. We'll hear Martha Argerich in concert in Switzerland, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2. And Maurizio Pollini in concert in Vienna, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, with the Vienna Philharmonic.

For the last 18 years of his life, Russian composer Alexander Borodin struggled to write an opera called "Prince Igor." He had a good excuse for his slow progress: he had a day job as a chemist. He only had time to compose on the weekends. Borodin's friends were so frustrated that he couldn't finish his opera, they even offered to help. In the end, Borodin died without finishing Prince Igor. His friends believed in the opera so much, they filled in the missing pieces. On Monday's Performance Today we'll hear one of the sections that Borodin did finish from a concert by the Nashville Symphony.

The Calidore String Quartet is our Young Artist in Residence, performing in the PT studios each day this week. On today's show, they'll finish what they began yesterday: the emotionally charged String Quartet No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn. Violinist Ryan Meehan says playing this music is thrilling and exhausting. "That's the power of music," he said. Tune in for the conclusion of Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 2 on Wednesday's Performance Today.

Musicians are often compared to athletes, but we usually don't have the numbers to do the analysis. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll quantify some speed: 72 notes played on a clarinet in seven seconds. That averages more than 10 notes per second. And in case you thought this is all sprint and no endurance, that pace continues for an entire page of music. Tune in for Carl Maria von Weber's lightning fast Clarinet Quintet with clarinetist David Shifrin giving Usain Bolt a run for his money.

French composer Cesar Franck didn't get much respect for his one and only symphony. One of his critics said it was "an admission of powerlessness." Another said it was "the negation of music." One Paris critic called it "painful, arid and gray music, devoid of grace, charm, and smile." Well, the work of those critics lives on only because the symphony they slandered lives on. It's music written in 1888 by the 66-year-old Cesar Franck. The only Symphony he ever wrote. We'll hear from a concert in Nashville. Gilbert Varga conducting the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

The Calidore String Quartet is our Young Artist in Residence, performing in the PT studios each day this week. On today's show, they'll finish what they began yesterday: the emotionally charged String Quartet No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn. Violinist Ryan Meehan says playing this music is thrilling and exhausting. "That's the power of music," he said. Tune in for the conclusion of Mendelssohn's String Quartet No. 2 on Wednesday's Performance Today.

It's tough sometimes, just getting along and communicating as a string quartet. On Tuesday's show we'll hear from the Calidore String Quartet, our young artists in residence. They study at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Violinist Ryan Meehan says string quartets succeed when they're rooted in trust and respect. When they don't work as well, he says, string quartets look a lot like a television reality show. Musicians stop being polite and start to get real on Performance Today.