Performance Today®

Maybe all he really wanted to do was direct, like the old Hollywood joke goes. But the fact is that Josef Stalin, murderous Russian despot, did get involved in the movie biz. In today's show, the story of Alexander Nevsky, a 1938 propaganda film ordered up by Stalin, and a concert performance of the film score, written by Sergei Prokofiev.

Every day on PT, listeners can enjoy terrific live performances from around the world. But how did those musicians get to be so good? What kind of hard work lies behind the seemingly effortless performance on stage? In today's show, another in our occasional series that we call the Art of Practicing. Trumpeter Manny Laureano says he's more like a singer than you might think.

Bruce Adolphe and the Piano Puzzler have been on a summer vacation for the last couple of weeks, leading to more than a few cases of Puzzler withdrawal in the PT community. Luckily, they're back in today's show. Play along with Fred and Bruce; see if you can guess the hidden tune and the mystery composer in this week's Piano Puzzler.

Most people have never heard of Canadian composer Andre Mathieu. Mathieu was a rising star in the 1930s and 1940s. But he led a troubled life, dropped out of the music scene, and died in obscurity in 1968. Some call him the Canadian Mozart. His style, though, is closer to Rachmaninoff, who called Mathieu a genius. On today's show, Alain Lefevre performs Mathieu's fourth piano concerto with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff hears every emotion in the Brahms Violin Concerto. He says it starts as a serene, beautiful piece, but then tumbles into incredible depths, with anger and moments of total forlornness. Tetzlaff played the Brahms concerto at the BBC Proms in London earlier this month. Plus, PT listeners weigh in on pianist Yuja Wang and the dust-up over her little orange dress. Details are in today's show.

A full performance of Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde spans about five hours. Pick out the first and last bits, scoop out everything in the middle, and you've got a nice concert excerpt that's a manageable size. In today's show, Jaap van Zweden does just that, leading the Dallas Symphony in the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's opera. Plus, highlights from PT's week at the 2011 Aspen Music Festival.

A full performance of Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde spans about five hours. Pick out the first and last bits, scoop out everything in the middle, and you've got a nice concert excerpt that's a manageable size. In today's show, Jaap van Zweden does just that, leading the Dallas Symphony in the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's opera. Plus, Elgar's loving portraits of family and friends: his Enigma Variations from the BBC Proms in London.

When Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela made their BBC Proms debut in 2007, they blew the roof off the Royal Albert Hall in London with a program of Latin music. They came back to the Proms this year, a little more mature (they no longer call themselves a youth orchestra). But the SBSO can still pack a punch. We'll hear their sold-out performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, from a concert three weeks ago in London.

Violinist Midori joined host Fred Child in our PT studios recently for an hour of music and conversation. She talked about the singular power of music by Bach ("so spiritual, so cleansing, so difficult") and about the many ways in which she is reaching out to young musicians and young listeners. Plus, Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.