Performance Today®

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.

Throughout history, conquering armies have been known to do some nasty, brutish things to the people they've vanquished. We'll never know if that worry was on Richard Strauss' mind when a bunch of American soldiers showed up at his door in Germany at the end of World War II. But the Americans weren't interested in murder or mayhem that day in 1945. Instead, one of the soldiers asked Strauss to write an oboe concerto for him. In today's show, German oboist Albrecht Mayer plays the Strauss Oboe Concerto, in concert in New York City.

The story line is oh-so-sappy. The sweet young thing who is wronged and dies of a broken heart. Even beyond the grave, she manages to choose forgiveness over vengeance. On the surface, you might think the music would be every bit as silly as the plot. But conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is quick to point out that Adolphe Adam's ballet "Giselle" is full of charm and beauty. We'll hear MTT conduct his own arrangement of Adam's ballet, from a concert in San Francisco.

The Greek name Leonidas means "brave as a lion." Violinist Leonidas Kavakos lives up to his name in a bold, fiery performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, from a concert in the Netherlands. But Kavakos shows his tender side too in Tchaikovsky's sweet, singing melodies. We'll hear Leonidas Kavakos' thoughts on what makes this concerto great, and his performance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.