Performance Today®

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.

Pianist Lang Lang is a classical music celebrity, a hero to many. But he also has his own heroes. In today's show, Lang Lang talks about his idol, composer Franz Liszt. The two have more in common than you might think. Both showmen with blazing technique on the piano, both utterly fearless on the concert stage. Lang Lang gives a fiery performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1, in concert with the Cincinnati Symphony.

It's climbing season again on Mount Everest, and the tallest peak in the world just claimed another four lives this week. There was no loss of life or limb when Yo-Yo Ma played what some call the Mount Everest of concertos, the Cello Concerto by Antonin Dvorak. We'll hear his spectacular performance, from a concert with the Atlanta Symphony.

Johann Sebastian Bach's music is almost like another element, another building block in the chemistry of the world. Lots of artists have thrown a pinch or two of Bach into the fire and come up with some interesting new alloy. Count Rob Moose among them. Today we'll hear his new arrangement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, including parts for banjo, mandolin, and guitar.