Performance Today®

Gustav Mahler's massive Fifth Symphony rages on for over an hour. But in the middle of that storm, there's a 10-minute oasis of calm. The Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth has been used for everything from funerals for heads of state to Olympic skating routines. Most people hear it as an outpouring of grief, but some say there's much more to it than that. In today's show, the story behind Mahler's Adagietto and a performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

The piano is essentially a percussion instrument. You press a key, a hammer hits the corresponding string, and a note is produced. But is that all there is? There must be more to playing the piano than that. Today, we'll hear from two terrific pianists, Shai Wosner and Garrick Ohlsson. Ohlsson weighs in on the difficulties of the piano, calling it "a box full of diminuendos." But with Ohlsson and Wosner in the driver's seat, we prefer to think of it as a box full of exquisite possibilities.

If only we could hand out those scratch-n-sniff cards to PT listeners today. It might come close to approximating what Manuel de Falla had in mind when he wrote his "Nights in the Gardens of Spain." He meant his music to evoke not just the sights and sounds of the gardens surrounding the Alhambra palace in Granada, Spain. He wanted to conjure up the delicate fragrances of the place that's been called "Paradise on Earth." If you can, find a quiet garden spot, lean back, close your eyes, and inhale de Falla's gorgeous music.

New York City's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is militant about one thing. They have never, will never use a conductor. That philosophy undoubtedly makes for more sensitive, attentive playing, as musicians are forced to listen to and watch each other more closely. It also presents the players with unique challenges. Case in point: Aaron Copland's ballet "Appalachian Spring," with its delicate, transparent textures and lightning-fast tempo changes. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra rises to the challenge, delivering a terrific performance of this American masterpiece.

New York City's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is militant about one thing. They have never, will never use a conductor. That philosophy undoubtedly makes for more sensitive, attentive playing, as musicians are forced to listen to and watch each other more closely. It also presents the players with unique challenges. Case in point: Aaron Copland's ballet "Appalachian Spring," with its delicate, transparent textures and lightning-fast tempo changes. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra rises to the challenge, delivering a terrific performance of this American masterpiece.

Is an unfinished piece by a long-dead composer a historical artifact to be preserved as is? Or is it ripe with possibilities, waiting for someone to come along and finish in his or her own way? Franz Schubert's 8th Symphony is nicknamed the Unfinished because Schubert wrote only two movements instead of the usual four. Over the years, other composers have tried their hand at completing it. Today we'll hear a new approach, the symphony as Schubert himself might have finished it, using his sketches and music borrowed from other works.

Conductor Alan Gilbert and violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann spent the past season working closely together. Zimmermann was the official Artist-in-Residence with Gilbert's band, the New York Philharmonic. Gilbert is a big fan of Zimmermann's playing. He says Zimmermann's "musicality is so intense, and his technical ability is so consummate." Zimmermann, Gilbert, and the New York Philharmonic perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto, from a concert in January.

When he was a teenager in the early 1920s, Dmitri Shostakovich played piano in movie theaters for silent films. A few years later, he wrote a Piano Concerto that in places almost sounds like music he might have riffed for a Charlie Chaplin comedy. It's the rollicking, jazz-inflected Piano Concerto No. 1 by Shostakovich. We'll hear a powerhouse performance by Olga Kern (pictured) and the Nashville Symphony.

Pinchas Zukerman's first musical love was the recorder. But he was only 4. It turned out to be puppy love. He had to wait another 4 years, until the ripe old age of 8, before he met his true love, the violin. Zukerman has branched out in a few different directions over the years, as a violist and a conductor. But he always comes back to his roots, to the violin. Pinchas Zukerman turns 64 today. We'll hear him, playing a Bach concerto in concert in Portugal.