Performance Today®

One critic said a recent performance by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic was "like sitting on top of the orchestra world." But the praise wasn't just for the orchestra. Part of what made the concert so electrifying was the two soloists, brothers Renaud and Gautier Capucon. They teamed up for the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello. We'll hear it in today's show.

The women of Anonymous 4 recently joined host Fred Child for music and conversation in a chilly St. Paul church. Even so, their performances radiated warmth and joy. They tell the story of the Cherry Tree carol, and sing early English and American Christmas carols.

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.

Joaquin Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez is perhaps the most popular guitar concerto of all time. Even if you don't think you know it, there's a good chance you've at least heard the gorgeous, tender slow movement. In today's show, flamenco guitarist Juan Manuel Canizares performs it with the Berlin Philharmonic, from their special 2011 Europa concert.

In today's show, a performance of a Haydn symphony that had a Viennese audience laughing out loud. We'll let you in on the joke, as Daniel Barenboim conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Haydn's Farewell symphony. Plus, pianist Yuja Wang gives a jaw-dropping performance of music from Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" in St. Paul.

"We swear, sword in hand, to die for the republic and for the rights of man." Those words, by French revolutionary writer Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, were the inspiration for Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, according to conductor John Eliot Gardiner. Gardiner leads the Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra in a stunning performance of Beethoven's Fifth, from a concert three weeks ago at Carnegie Hall.

Cellist Cicely Parnas has been in the studios all week. Today, she wraps up her stay as the newest PT Young Artist in Residence with the final two movements of a Brahms cello sonata. Plus, we'll hear Part II of Mahler's monumental Symphony Number 8, the Symphony of a Thousand, from a concert by the San Francisco Symphony.

Gustav Mahler's monumental Symphony Number 8 (the Symphony of a Thousand) is ambitious in almost every way. Not just its size (intended for an amassed orchestra and chorus of 1,000 people), but in its emotional and intellectual content. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony perform part one of the Symphony of a Thousand in today's show. Look for part two tomorrow.

Mariss Jansons got his conducting start early in life. We'll hear the story of how he graduated from conducting paper clips and erasers, to leading the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, once voted the top orchestra in the world. Today, they team up for Maurice Ravel's ravishing Suite No. 2 from the ballet "Daphnis and Chloe."