Performance Today®

The greatest musicians are part athlete and part story-teller. Able to pull off amazing technical feats, and to capture the emotional essence of the music at the same time. Cellist Yeesun Kim says she and the other members of the Borromeo String Quartet work on learning the narrative and drama of a piece, in addition to learning the notes. They play a Beethoven string quartet in today's show. Plus, Michael Tilson Thomas (pictured) tells the story of the life of a musician in his Notturno for solo flute and orchestra. Flutist Paula Robison performs it with the San Francisco Symphony.

The biggest summer music festival in the world, the BBC Proms, is underway in London. We'll have highlights from the 2011 Proms all summer long. And in today's show, we'll revisit some big moments from Proms of the past, including Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic performing Tchaikovsky's Tempest.

Two musical games in the show today. Claude Debussy wrote music for a ballet about a game of tennis. Debussy called it simply Jeux, or Games. We'll hear a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Bruce Adolphe drops by for our weekly PT game, the Piano Puzzler. This week's very special guest is organist Cameron Carpenter.

Czech composer Bedrich Smetana wrote a set of tone poems that he called Ma Vlast. A literal translation is My Country. But a more idiomatic translation might be My Homeland, a name that gives that sense of groundedness and belonging. Today and tomorrow, a look at Smetana's homeland. We'll hear four of the six pieces, including the most famous, The Moldau.

Modest Mussorgsky's biggest hit wasn't a hit at all, as far as he knew. Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at an Exhibition as a work for solo piano. It wasn't even published until after his death. He had no way of knowing that his quirky piano piece would turn out to be one of the greatest orchestral hits of all time, thanks to Maurice Ravel and a host of other composers who've made orchestrations of it. The Vienna Philharmonic plays Ravel's version, in the Gardens of Schonbrunn Palace.

All week, we've been highlighting some of the winning performances from this year's Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Today, violin silver medalist Sergey Dogadin plays excerpts from the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And the grand prize-winner, pianist Daniil Trifonov, plays Franz Liszt's "La Campanella."

All week, we've been highlighting some of the winning performances from this year's Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Today, violin silver medalist Sergey Dogadin plays excerpts from the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. And the grand prize-winner, pianist Daniil Trifonov, plays Franz Liszt's "La Campanella."

Ernest Chausson was plagued by doubt and self-criticism. He was given to beating himself with his fists when he was unhappy with his composing. His perfectionism got in the way of him finishing anything. And yet, he wrote beautiful music. Claude Debussy was his friend, and encouraged him, saying "you don't let yourself go enough." The story of Ernest Chausson's odd life and puzzling death, plus a performance of his Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet from the Spoleto Festival USA.

The slow movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto is a passionate declaration of love by the smitten 19-year-old Chopin. Lang Lang was 12 when he first performed it. And what does a 12-year-old know about romance? Struggling to capture those emotions, so foreign to him, he asked his dad what to do. His advice: just think about the love you feel for your mom. The grown-up Lang Lang plays Chopin, in concert at the Concertgebouw.