Performance Today®

When a friend suggested that cellist Alisa Weilerstein perform Elgar's Cello Concerto with conductor Daniel Barenboim, her initial reaction was an overwhelming "NO." In today's show, find out what Weilerstein's reluctance was all about, and the performance that eventually came from her overcoming it: cellist Alisa Weilerstein, conductor Daniel Barenboim, and the Berlin Philharmonic, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto in Oxford, England. Plus, music from Britain's royal wedding last Friday.

One year ago this weekend, Nashville was hit with a devastating flood. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Nashville Symphony's home, took on 24 feet of murky river water. The hall was closed for 8 months, undergoing $42 million in repairs. On this first anniversary of the floods, we'll revisit a special concert in honor of the re-opening of the Schermerhorn last January.

One year ago this weekend, Nashville was hit with a devastating flood. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Nashville Symphony's home, took on 24 feet of murky river water. The hall was closed for 8 months, undergoing $42 million in repairs. On this first anniversary of the floods, we'll revisit a special concert in honor of the re-opening of the Schermerhorn last January. Plus, music in honor of Britain's royal wedding today.

Like a lot of great musical ensembles, the vocal ensemble Cantus started as a group of friends getting together to make music for the sheer joy of it. They turned professional a few years later. Now, they've been called the premier men's vocal ensemble in the country. They're also this year's PT Artists in Residence. In today's show, Cantus sings sacred choral music from the last 400 years.

Every summer, Scottish-born conductor Donald Runnicles exchanges his tam for a cowboy hat, and steps into his role as the music director of Wyoming's Grand Teton Music Festival. This summer marks the festival's 50th anniversary. In today's show, Mozart's Symphony Number 40, led by the cowboy with the brogue, from last year's Grand Teton Music Festival.

"If your eyes were not the color of the moon...oh, my dearest, I would not love you so! But when I hold you, I hold everything that is...in your life I see everything that lives." Composer Peter Lieberson set those verses by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda to music, as a loving gift to his second wife, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. She only had a chance to sing them a few times before she died of cancer in 2006. This past weekend, Peter Lieberson also died. We'll hear an excerpt from Lieberson's "Neruda Songs" in today's show.

What does music taste like? There are a variety of different flavors in today's show: The rich, dark chocolate of a Mozart Wind Serenade, from a concert in New York City. The exotic middle-eastern flavors of Camille Saint-Saens'"Egyptian" Piano Concerto, from a performance in Rotterdam. The heartiness of two Hungarian Dances by Brahms. And the refreshing sparkle of Vivaldi's "Spring" concerto, played by Margaret Batjer and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

New York's Orchestra of St. Luke's had never had its own home. That's all changed, with the opening of the new DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, a space dedicated to rehearsing and recording and education. As part of the hall's inaugural, PT host Fred Child was there for a very special onstage event, music and conversation with conductor Ivan Fischer and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. We'll have highlights on the show, today and tomorrow.

Yesterday, we brought you Part I of our special onstage event with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, in their new home at New York's DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Today is Part II, and includes a performance of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. Conductor Ivan Fischer calls it "full of life, humor, fun...a wonderful joke." Plus, music in honor of today's Good Friday and Earth Day observances.