Performance Today®

"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."

"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.

PT's newest Young Artist in Residence is cellist Cicely Parnas. She's in her first year at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Every day this week, she joins host Fred Child in the PT studios for music and conversation. Today, Cicely talks about her new cello, and plays a Debussy sonata with accompanist Kati Gleiser.

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, yes. Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg plays Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, from a concert in San Francisco.

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 Christopher Theofanidis among them. We'll hear his new work, "Muse," along with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, the piece that inspired it.

Claude Debussy's faun didn't leave a day-planner behind, so the rest of his day was a mystery. But Debussy captured a few hours of it in one of the most memorable pieces ever. It's music that's delicate and lush and shimmering, all at once. In today's show, the Cleveland Orchestra plays Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," on tour in Lucerne, Switzerland.