Performance Today®

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.

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.

Writers have always been advised to stick with what they know. Good thing Aaron Copland didn't follow that advice. After Benny Goodman asked him to write a clarinet concerto, Copland complained, "I can't play a note on the clarinet!" So maybe he couldn't play the clarinet. But he wrote a great concerto for it. Alan Kay performs it in today's show, from a concert at the Windham Chamber Music Festival.

He was an obscure dead composer, but Mozart loved his work. He even arranged some of the old guy's keyboard pieces for string quartet. In today's show, the Orion String Quartet performs some of those curious Mozart arrangements. And that nearly-forgotten composer? That would be Johann Sebastian Bach.

Every time we air Maurice Ravel's Bolero, we get a lot of listener feedback. Some of you absolutely love it. Others absolutely hate it. We think anything that generates that much passion on either side is worth another look - and listen. Get ready to weigh in on the subject again. Bolero is back in today's show, from a concert in Dublin, Ireland.

Usually, when we hear about some newly-rediscovered piece of music, it's in some dusty monastery in Europe. In today's show, the story of Gustav Mahler's Blumine, which went missing for about 80 years and turned up in the library at Yale University. We'll hear a performance of Mahler's lost-and-found work, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

On Thanksgiving Day, we'll feature music with roots in early America. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and friends play a mix of bluegrass, classical, and Appalachian music. Plus, songs for the day from the men of the vocal ensemble Cantus. And Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, where villagers do a cheerful, thankful dance after a menacing storm is over.

Every time we air Maurice Ravel's Bolero, we get a lot of listener feedback. Some of you absolutely love it. Others absolutely hate it. We think anything that generates that much passion on either side is worth another look - and listen. Get ready to weigh in on the subject again. Bolero is back in today's show, from a concert in Dublin, Ireland.

Paul Neubauer is no stranger to risk-taking. He went from a nice safe prestigious orchestra job as principal violist with the New York Philharmonic to the far less certain life of a traveling viola soloist. In today's show, Neubauer takes musical risks with a set of three Gypsy-inspired works for viola and piano.