Performance Today®

Loving parents usually try to steer their children away from making the same mistakes they did. Thankfully, children don't always listen. Vanessa Perez's mother was a pianist who suffered from terrible stage fright, who thought that the life of a musician was just too hard. So when Vanessa asked for piano lessons, her mother said no. Eventually, she gave in, and Vanessa is now enjoying the life of a concert artist that had eluded her mother. We'll meet Vanessa Perez in today's show.

The legend of the firebird comes down to us from many different cultures. The details differ, but the essence of the story is the same. This magical bird is immortal, dying in fire and being reborn in the ashes of its former self. In 1910, the then-unknown Igor Stravinsky ensured his own immortality, writing music for the new ballet, "The Firebird." Today we'll hear a performance by the Cincinnati Symphony.

The British are beginning a year-long celebration starting this weekend. It's Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, a celebration of her 60 years on the throne. In today's show, we'll celebrate with our friends across the pond. We'll hear from Tony Holt, who was a boy soprano at the coronation ceremony in 1953. And we'll hear some of the same music that was played at the coronation ceremony.

We've got two powerhouse pianists in today's show. They each talk about the emotional challenges of performing. While he says he loves playing, Evgeny Kissin limits his concerts to 40 or 50 performances a year, because he finds it so draining. And Emanuel Ax is candid about his stage fright. Both are phenomenal performers, despite the challenges. In today's show, Kissin plays Chopin in Sydney, Australia, and Ax plays Beethoven in Los Angeles.

The legend of the firebird comes down to us from many different cultures. The details differ, but the essence of the story is the same. This magical bird is immortal, dying in fire and being reborn in the ashes of its former self. In 1910, the then-unknown Igor Stravinsky ensured his own immortality, writing music for the new ballet, "The Firebird." Today we'll hear a performance by the Cincinnati Symphony.

Usually, when we hear about some newly-rediscovered piece of music, it's in some dusty monastery in Europe. In today's show, the story of Gustav Mahler's Blumine, which went missing for about 80 years and turned up in the library at Yale University. We'll hear a performance of Mahler's lost-and-found work, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Memorial Day has come to be a celebration, the unofficial first day of summer. It's also a day to remember our men and women in uniform. In today's show, we have some summer celebrations, and also a most beloved American work, Samuel Barber's Adagio for strings. Plus a new work by Kevin Puts that honors servicemen and women buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Every week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We get one of our listeners on the phone to try to guess the tune, and the composer Bruce is mimicking. Is it "Stand by Your Man" in the style of Tchaikovsky? Or maybe "Do Re Mi" in the style of Schoenberg? Play along, see if you can guess the tune and the composer in this week's Piano Puzzler.

Today we're featuring two amazing young pianists whose stars are rising. Conrad Tao is 17, still finishing his studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Earlier this week, Tao won a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. We'll hear him in recital in Florida. Yuja Wang is 25, and has been delivering jaw-dropping performances ever since she appeared on the international scene about a decade ago. We'll hear her in concert in San Francisco, playing Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand.