Performance Today®

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.

The sea. It's where life on earth began. And by some measure, Claude Debussy's "La Mer" (the Sea) is where 20th century music began. Completed in 1905, it's an orchestral masterpiece, an amazingly complex piece of music with a disarmingly simple name. We'll hear a terrific performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Sondergard. Plus, pianist Alessio Bax is in the PT studios to play three Rachmaninoff preludes.

The sea. It's where life on earth began. And by some measure, Claude Debussy's "La Mer" (the Sea) is where 20th century music began. Completed in 1905, it's an orchestral masterpiece, an amazingly complex piece of music with a disarmingly simple name. We'll hear a terrific performance by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thomas Sondergard. Plus, pianist Alessio Bax is back in the PT studios to play three Rachmaninoff preludes.

When he was a boy, Alessio Bax wanted desperately to be an organist. He wasn't tall enough to reach the organ pedals, so had to settle for second-best, the piano. Safe to say it's a compromise that has worked out well for him. He has a busy solo and chamber music career and a couple of well-received CDs. We'll meet Alessio Bax when he joins host Fred Child in the PT studios, today and tomorrow.

The combination of an unusually thin skin and some particularly sharp digs by critics completely deflated Sergei Rachmaninoff, and sent him into a tailspin after the premiere of his first symphony. One reviewer at the premiere compared it to the seven plagues of Egypt. Times and tastes have changed since then, and audiences today love it. Osmo Vanska and the Minnesota Orchestra give a rousing performance of this diamond in the rough, from a recent concert in Minneapolis.

A master pianist and one of the world's great orchestras rendezvous in a magnificent concert hall to play a Mozart concerto together. We'll go to Vienna to hear Maurizio Pollini play Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 12 at the Musikverein, with the Vienna Philharmonic. Plus, cellist Steven Isserlis plays a concerto by Saint-Saens with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

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.