Performance Today®

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.

Conductor Simon Rattle joins us to introduce the Symphony No. 2, by Johannes Brahms. Rattle says "this is a work where real unalloyed joy comes out, and that, in all of Brahms' output, is fairly rare." Rattle also weighs in on Brahms' gruff, very German sense of humor. And we'll go to a concert in Berlin, with Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, in the complete symphony.

The days of a demure piano duo, each sitting motionless and politely covering half of a piano keyboard, are over. Enter the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo. Hands fly, arms tangle, and torsos collide as Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe attack the keyboard. Anderson & Roe will be in the PT studios, playing their unique arrangements of music by Rachmaninoff and Astor Piazzolla.

Perhaps it's appropriate that the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays in a concert hall named for this country's most famous animator. In today's show, the L.A. Phil plays Edward Elgar's set of lovingly-drawn musical portraits of his friends and family, the Enigma Variations. We'll hear a concert performance from the orchestra's home, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Pianist Maurizio Pollini has been accused of being stiff and unemotional on stage. One writer said, "There are morticians who go about their duties more chirpily than Pollini on the concert platform." That may be, but he manages to generate a lot of emotion in his performances. Pollini joins Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic for a lively - and emotional - performance of Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto.

Times were tough for Mozart in the summer of 1788. His financial life was a shambles, and he was reduced to writing a series of pitiful letters to a friend, pleading for money. But at the same time, he was also writing his final three symphonies, each of them a masterpiece. He churned them out over the course of two months that summer. We'll hear Mozart's Symphony Number 39, from a concert by James Levine and the Boston Symphony.

If your critics are accusing you of writing extravagant, self-indulgent music, maybe the best response isn't to write an over-the-top work called A Hero's Life, casting yourself as the hero. And when folks question you about it, maybe you shouldn't compare yourself with Napoleon and Alexander in your defense. But then, maybe you're not Richard Strauss, who did exactly that. Was he for real, or was it all a big joke? The story in today's show, and a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The days of a demure piano duo, each sitting motionless and politely covering half of a piano keyboard, are over. Enter the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo. Hands fly, arms tangle, and torsos collide as Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe attack the keyboard. Anderson & Roe will be in the PT studios, playing their unique arrangements of music by Mozart and Michael Jackson.