Performance Today®

In Greek mythology, Prometheus took fire from the gods and gave it to mortals. We got warmth and light, knowledge and culture. But Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock for all eternity, where a giant eagle pecked out his liver each day. In today's show, we'll hear excerpts from Beethoven's ballet, "The Creatures of Prometheus," from a concert in New York City.

A systematic assault on a mind is a hard thing to track. But photographs of Dmitri Shostakovich over the years do seem to tell a story. Into his late 20s, he kept a kind of impish Harry Potter youthfulness about him, including the owl glasses. But gradually, as the official scolding from Moscow turned into harassment and then to abuse and threats, Shostakovich changed. His face grew grim and strained. In today's show, a snapshot of the young Shostakovich, before fear became part of his daily life. We'll hear his Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 from Los Angeles.

Poet Rita Dove wrote a book about Beethoven, his best friend in 1803, and the piece they premiered together. Beethoven wrote an astonishing sonata inspired by the virtuosity of violinist George Bridgetower. But one night over drinks, the two friends got into a fight. Beethoven took Bridgetower's name off the music, and they never spoke again. Rita Dove has re-imagined their relationship in her book, "Sonata Mulattica." She joins PT host Fred Child to guide us through their story, and through the piece that's become known as Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

On this Martin Luther King Day, our show is devoted to a celebration of the life of Dr. King. Music was an important force in the civil rights movement, and important in the personal life of Dr. King as well. We'll hear highlights from the annual King Celebration concert in his home town of Atlanta last Thursday evening, including Yo-Yo Ma performing Dvorak's Cello Concerto with the Atlanta Symphony.

Johannes Brahms was experimenting. He was always attracted to the richer, darker sounds of certain instruments, the viola and the clarinet, for example. He wanted to highlight those warmer sounds in his Second Serenade for Orchestra. But what to do with all those pesky violins, with their bright, piercing sounds? Hear how Brahms solved his fiddle problem in this weekend's show. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays his Second Serenade in New York.

Igor Stravinsky borrowed all of the tunes from his ballet, "Pulcinella," from Italian music of the eighteenth century. But he put his own musical fingerprints all over it. It's a delightful mix of old and new. We'll go to New York to hear a performance of the "Pulcinella" Suite by the New York Philharmonic.

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.

Every day on PT, we feature the best of the best of live performances from all around the world. Today is an exception, not in quality but in geography. Every performance in Wednesday's show took place right here in the U.S. From the lowlands of Florida to the Colorado Rockies, with a stopover in the PT studios in Minnesota for the Piano Puzzler, we're featuring the best of the best of the American music scene.

Violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jeremy Denk have been musical collaborators for years. Today, they released a new CD, an album of all French Impressionist pieces. PT host Fred Child talked with Bell and Denk about the new project, and the music that Bell describes as "elegant and fun and witty." And we'll hear a concert performance of one of the tracks on the CD, Cesar Franck's A Major Violin Sonata.