Performance Today®

Before he was a music celebrity, Beethoven was the new kid in town in Vienna. He was in his mid-20s and slowly earning a reputation as a great pianist and improviser. But nobody really knew if he could write music. Beethoven was eager to prove himself as a composer so he took a toe-tapper of a tune and wrote some virtuosic variations. That earned Beethoven a spot in a heated musical duel. Find out who won and how on Mondaya€™s Performance Today

Yuja Wang is known for her daring confidence and skill at the piano and for her adventurous taste in clothes, but at a recent concert in San Francisco, she took a different kind of risk: playing with a duet partner. The remarkable young Chinese pianist was in town to solo with the orchestra. And, as a fun way to open the concert, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas came out with her at the beginning of the evening. They shared a piano bench to play the Sonata for Piano Four Hands, by Francis Poulenc.

Johannes Brahms wasn't exactly known for writing great xylophone parts. Or any xylophone parts, for that matter. But Arnold Schoenberg apparently thought that was just what Brahms needed. He orchestrated a Brahms piano quartet, and included a juicy part for the xylophone in the last movement. And he threw out the piano part entirely. Just a couple of the "improvements" in a wild, sometimes wacky, and ultimately very satisfying makeover by Arnold Schoenberg. We'll hear it, from a concert in New York.

Of all Mozart's concertos for wind instruments, his clarinet concerto is arguably the finest. Gorgeous melodies, achingly beautiful harmonies. It's a perfect showpiece for what the instrument can do. Martin Frost plays Mozart's masterpiece, his one and only concerto for the clarinet. Plus, the harrowing story of how a near-fatal collision with a train taught Frost how to put work and rest into perspective.

Chen Yi was a classical musician in China at the worst possible time, during the Cultural Revolution, when all Western art was banned. Chinese authorities searched her home, and took away all her family's classical recordings. Chen Yi herself was sent off to a labor camp. She held onto her music in her heart and her memory until the political climate changed. Chen Yi is now a successful composer living in the West. We'll hear one of her works, from a concert in St. Paul.

At a time when some venerable American orchestras are going under, there are interesting new groups springing up to take their place in the musical landscape. One such orchestra is called the Knights, located in New York City. They're young, talented, innovative, and driven by a sense of musical discovery. We'll hear the Knights in concert, playing Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony.

Ten years ago this week, we introduced a brand new feature on our show. And the Piano Puzzler has been a huge hit with listeners ever since. Here's how it works. Every week, 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 imitating. Play along and see if you can solve this week's Piano Puzzler.

The King's Singers recently joined host Fred Child in our PT studios for a special hour of music and conversation. Long-time bass Stephen Connolly describes the tight-knit group as "six voices trying to sing as one." The legendary vocal ensemble from London did just that, entertaining a small studio audience with a half dozen songs, including their signature piece, "You are the New Day."

Claude Debussy once tried his hand at painting, but decided music had a much better way of depicting the glint of sunlight on water, the ever-changing undulations of the sea, and the smell of a salty mist shimmering in the air. In today's show, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the New York Philharmonic in Debussy's masterpiece for the senses, "La Mer," or "The Sea."