Performance Today®

It was a piece born of anguish, and nearly destroyed by anguish. In today's show, the story of 1.X.1905, a remarkable piano sonata by Leos Janacek. Janacek wrote it to protest the death of a student, and for unknown reasons, tried to destroy it when it was finished. PT Young Artist in Residence Charlie Albright is back in the studios today to perform it.

When it comes to upholding traditions, the Brits do it better than just about anybody else. Their big summer music festival, the BBC Proms, is full of traditions. And there's none bigger than their annual performance of Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony. We'll hear the final two movements, including the famous Ode to Joy. Plus, PT Young Artist in Residence Charlie Albright is back in the studios for music and conversation with Fred Child.

PT's newest Young Artist in Residence is pianist Charlie Albright. He joins host Fred Child in the PT studios, sharing music and conversation every day this week. We'll get a chance to meet this surprising and talented young man. He's pursuing a music career with all the passion and energy you might expect, but there's more to him than that. In today's show, he plays a piano sonata by Joseph Haydn.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the world went car crazy. Pretty soon, the sound of the city was the blaring of car horns. When George Gershwin visited Paris, he loved the sound of the horns on the winding stone streets so much that he brought four authentic Parisian taxi horns back with him to use at the premiere of his work, an American in Paris. Leonard Slatkin leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Gershwin's homage to Paris.

Most people have at least a little respect for death. Not Franz Liszt. He took the Dies Irae, a chant from the medieval mass for the dead, and turned it into bombastic 15-minute piece for piano and orchestra. In effect giving death a slap in the face. We'll hear Liszt's Totentanz, the Dance of Death, ironically from a concert celebrating his 200th birthday.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Solemn Mass) isn't so much a declaration of piety as it is a battle with the Almighty. It's massive. It's unsettling, even thorny in places. Just like the composer himself. Sir Colin Davis led a performance several weeks ago at the BBC Proms in London. We'll hear highlights in today's show. Plus, Sergei Prokofiev's homage to Haydn, his Classical Symphony.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the world went car crazy. Pretty soon, the sound of the city was the blaring of car horns. When George Gershwin visited Paris, he loved the sound of the horns on the winding stone streets so much that he brought four authentic Parisian taxi horns back with him to use at the premiere of his work, an American in Paris. Leonard Slatkin leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Gershwin's homage to Paris.

The MacArthur Foundation calls it the Fellows Program. But it's better known by its nickname, the Genius Grant. Each winner receives $500,000 over five years, with no strings attached. Today, the MacArthur Foundation released its list of 2011 Fellows. Two of them are classical musicians. Host Fred Child spoke with one of them, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, about the award. The full story is in today's show.

Maria Joao Pires just might be the Brett Favre of pianists. She told one newspaper she would stop playing in 2011. Then she said she had no intention to retire at all. Now she's thinking maybe in 2014. Free agent Maria Joao Pires signed on with David Zinman and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra for a concert at the Super Bowl of summer music festivals, the BBC Proms in London. She'll play Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27.