Performance Today®

How to sum up Franz Liszt in just a few words? A musician of such immense skill that people whispered he was in league with the devil. A savvy businessman who encouraged those rumors, knowing that there's no such thing as bad press. A reformed rock star with a wild youth and an intensely spiritual old age. We'll hear all sides of Franz Liszt this weekend, in celebration of his 200th birthday.

Franz Liszt wrote hundreds of original piano works and piano transcriptions. But his magnum opus for the piano is the B Minor Sonata. Marc-Andre Hamelin performs it, from a special PT event several weeks ago in Boston, hosted by Fred Child. Plus, we'll hear the late great poet Bill Holm reading his own poem, based on Franz Liszt's "Forgotten Romance."

Richard Strauss reached back to the Middle Ages to find a thoroughly modern character, the class clown. Till Eulenspiegel was a legendary German folk-hero who thumbed his nose at just about everybody. His antics got him in trouble with the authorities, and eventually earned him a one-way trip to the gallows. Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony play Strauss' rollicking tone poem, "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," in concert in Montreal.

If pianos could feel fear, they'd probably all turn tail and scamper offstage when they know Franz Liszt's music is coming. In today's show, two unsuspecting instruments get a workout. Olga Kern gives a ferocious, keyboard-busting performance of his Totentanz, or Dance of Death, with the Nashville Symphony. And Roberto Plano joins Fred Child in the studio to play Lizst's expressive Transcendental Etude No. 11.

In today's show, two great American orchestras, from Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Gustavo Dudamel leads the west-coast band in Mozart's Symphony No. 35, the Haffner Symphony. And pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins the east-coasters on a European tour. They play Liszt's Second Piano Concerto, from a concert in Berlin.

How to sum up Franz Liszt in just a few words? A musician of such immense skill that people whispered he was in league with the devil. A savvy businessman who encouraged those rumors, knowing that there's no such thing as bad press. A reformed rock star with a wild youth and an intensely spiritual old age. We'll hear all sides of Franz Liszt this week, in celebration of his 200th birthday.

The sea. It's where life on earth began. And by some measure, Claude Debussy's "La Mer" (the Sea) is where 20th century music began. Completed in 1905, it's an orchestral masterpiece, an amazingly complex piece of music with a disarmingly simple name. We'll hear a terrific performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Sondergard. Plus, pianist Alessio Bax is in the PT studios to play three Rachmaninoff preludes.

The sea. It's where life on earth began. And by some measure, Claude Debussy's "La Mer" (the Sea) is where 20th century music began. Completed in 1905, it's an orchestral masterpiece, an amazingly complex piece of music with a disarmingly simple name. We'll hear a terrific performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Sondergard. Plus, pianist Alessio Bax is back in the PT studios to play three Rachmaninoff preludes.

When he was a boy, Alessio Bax wanted desperately to be an organist. He wasn't tall enough to reach the organ pedals, so had to settle for second-best, the piano. Safe to say it's a compromise that has worked out well for him. He has a busy solo and chamber music career and a couple of well-received CDs. We'll meet Alessio Bax when he joins host Fred Child in the PT studios, today and tomorrow.