Performance Today®

The Eiffel Tower was built for the Exposition of 1889, changing the Parisian landscape forever. But the Exposition also changed the soundscape of Paris, and of the world. Claude Debussy went there and heard Indonesian gamelan music for the first time. He was fascinated with the sounds and rhythms, and immediately started incorporating them into his music, paving the way for what would become Impressionism. The Borromeo String Quartet plays Debussy's String Quartet, profoundly influenced by his encounter with the sound of the gamelan.

Today's show is all about the swan song, that last gasp of creative energy and beauty before dying. We'll hear the final performances of several 20th century greats, including conductor Leonard Bernstein and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. And the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra performs Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. Nine days after its premiere in 1893, Tchaikovsky was dead.

Franz Schubert was a musical Peter Pan, who never got the chance to grow old. By contrast, Richard Strauss (pictured) lived well into his 80s. In today's show, a musical snapshot of each man as he came of age. We'll hear Schubert's Symphony No. 3 from Paris, and Richard Strauss' Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments from the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, both written when the composers were 18.

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.