Performance Today®

Like plenty of other great ideas, at first glance, it might leave you scratching your head a bit. Start with an old chestnut by Antonio Vivaldi, the Four Seasons. And see it through an entirely different lens, the sultry, smoky Argentinian tango. Is that really such a good idea? Well, in a word, yes! Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg plays Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, from a concert in San Francisco.

Times were tough for Mozart in the summer of 1788. His financial life was a shambles, and he was reduced to writing a series of pitiful letters to a friend, pleading for money. But at the same time, he was also writing his final three symphonies, each of them a masterpiece. He churned them out over the course of two months that summer. We'll hear Mozart's Symphony Number 39, from a concert by James Levine and the Boston Symphony.

Pianist Maurizio Pollini has been accused of being stiff and unemotional on stage. One writer said, "There are morticians who go about their duties more chirpily than Pollini on the concert platform." That may be, but he manages to generate a lot of emotion in his performances. Pollini joins Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic for a lively - and emotional - performance of Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto.

On July 12, 1941 conductor Lorin Maazel led the NBC Summer Symphony in a concert that was broadcast live from coast to coast. He was 11 years old. Among the pieces he led on that 1941 live national broadcast was the Symphony No. 40, the great G-minor Symphony by Mozart. The very same Lorin Maazel just turned 82. And last month, he led another live national broadcast of that very same piece, the Symphony No. 40, by Mozart. We'll hear this Mozart Symphony, the second time around, on today's Performance Today.

This day is holy for two of the world's great religions, Judaism and Christianity. Jews observe the beginning of Passover at sundown tonight. And Christians call this day Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross. In today's show, music in observance of both traditions, including traditional Passover songs and highlights from the Bach St. John Passion.

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 from the Aspen Music Festival.

On July 12, 1941 conductor Lorin Maazel led the NBC Summer Symphony in a concert that was broadcast live from coast to coast. He was 11 years old. Among the pieces he led on that 1941 live national broadcast was the Symphony No. 40, the great G-minor Symphony by Mozart. The very same Lorin Maazel just turned 82. And last month, he led another live national broadcast... of that very same piece, the Symphony No. 40, by Mozart. We'll hear this Mozart Symphony, the second time around, on today's Performance Today.

It's music from the early 1600s played with a contemporary feel. The members of the early music ensemble L'Arpeggiata like to sound old and new at the same time. On Tuesday's Performance Today we'll hear the rest of their unique concert two weeks ago at Carnegie Hall in New York with music for Holy Week combining early Italian motets and Corsican folk songs with improvisation influenced by everything in between.

This music is old and new, at the same time. On today's show we'll hear a group from Paris called L'Arpeggiata. They play music from the 1600s and 1700s, but much of what they do is improvise around those pieces from hundreds of years ago. Listen to Monday's Performance Today for L'Arpeggiata from a gorgeous concert earlier this month at Carnegie Hall in New York City.