Performance Today®

Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis has been called one of the most beautiful pieces of the 20th century. It's in today's show, from a performance at one of the most beautiful spots in the U.S., the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. Plus, violinist Joshua Bell plays a Beethoven Romance with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime, but it was also something a seasoned veteran might have to think twice about before agreeing to. Pianist Conrad Tao is seasoned, but he's also only 17. Still, when the call went out for a last-minute substitute for an ailing pianist, Tao jumped at the chance to give a solo recital on one day's notice. In today's show, Tao's talks about his last-minute solo recital in Fort Worth. And we'll hear from the performance that had Texas critics raving.

In the first half of the 20th century, thousands of children and young adults were stricken with polio. One of them was violinist Itzhak Perlman, who lost much of the use of his legs when he contracted polio at age 4. Perlman joined host Fred Child recently to talk about his experience with polio, and to discuss efforts at worldwide eradication of the disease. And we'll hear him in a performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

It was the opportunity of a lifetime, but it was also something a seasoned veteran might have to think twice about before agreeing to. Pianist Conrad Tao is seasoned, but he's also only 17. Still, when the call went out for a last-minute substitute for an ailing pianist, Tao jumped at the chance to give a solo recital on one day's notice. In today's show, Tao's talks about his last-minute solo recital in Fort Worth. And we'll hear from the performance that had Texas critics raving.

When he was in his late 50s, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius' creative well was running dry. If only Sibelius himself could have dried out, he might have written more. An alcohol-fueled depression seemed to be at the root of the problem. In today's show a fellow Finn, conductor Osmo Vanska, leads the Minnesota Orchestra in Sibelius' final major work, his Symphony Number 6.

A Chinese folk tale became music in the hands of composers Chen Gang and He Zhanhao. Some have called it the Chinese Romeo and Juliet, a story of two star-crossed lovers. After violinist Gil Shaham heard it for the first time, he decided that he wanted to share this beautiful piece with the world. He's joined by Lan Shui and the Singapore Symphony for the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto.

This week, we welcome all our new listeners in and around Boston. PT is now being carried by Classical New England in Boston. In today's show, we'll feature great performances by James Levine and the Boston Symphony, and pay visits to the Boston Early Music Festival and the New England Conservatory, representing just a part of the vibrant arts scene in this historic city.

PT's newest Young Artist in Residence is pianist Charlie Albright. He joins host Fred Child in the PT studios for music and conversation. We'll get a chance to meet this surprising and talented young man. He's pursuing a music career with all the passion and energy you might expect, but there's more to him than that. In today's show, he plays several Etudes by Frederic Chopin.

Pianist Charlie Albright has been in the studios all week. Today, he wraps up his stay as the newest PT Young Artist in Residence with one of his own improvisations and a transcription of Johann Strauss, Jr.'s, Blue Danube Waltz. Plus, the wacky mating call of the French composer: Hector Berlioz's bizarre love song to a woman he'd never met, his Symphonie Fantastique. We'll hear it from a concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra.