Quartet New Generation is made up of four young women from Germany who play recorders. They play everything from the Renaissance to the avant garde. They sometimes even put on platinum wigs and play techno dance music. The Quartet New Generation stopped by the PT studios recently for music and conversation with PT host Fred Child. They'll play works by Handel and Minnesota composer Mary Ellen Childs.
Daniel Barenboim is a full-time pianist. And a full-time conductor. If you think that adds up to too much, Barenboim is quick to disagree. In fact, he wants to keep up the frenetic pace. He says, "I pray every day that I will not get comfortable in my old age." In today's show, Barenboim the pianist and Barenboim the conductor, from concerts in Vienna and Essen, Germany.
In today's show, a couple of blatant cases of false advertising. Johannes Brahms promised his publisher a dour, sad, tragic Second Symphony. But what he delivered was the sunniest and cheeriest of all his symphonies. And Franz Schubert (pictured) subtitled his Fourth Symphony "The Tragic." Tune in to today's show and see if you think the label fits. We'll hear performances from New York and Amsterdam.
For pianist Evgeny Kissin, playing to a live audience is an emotional balancing act. On the one hand, he says that it's so emotionally draining that he limits the number of concerts he gives. But he also says he wouldn't have it any other way. When someone asked if he tries to forget about the audience during a concert, he was incredulous. He said, "Why on earth should I try to forget about the audience when it is for them that I go on stage and play?" In today's show, Evgeny Kissin plays to an audience at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Classical musicians often trace their lineage, not through their parents, but through their teachers. Being able to say "My teacher's teacher's teacher's teacher was Beethoven" is something that sounds impressive. But with so many generations in there, does it really imply anything? In today's show, a classical guitarist who was a first-generation student of the legendary Andres Segovia. We'll hear the student, Sharon Isbin, play music written for her teacher, Joaquin Rodrigo's "Fantasy for a Gentleman."
Today's show features some of the greatest performances of the 20th century, including Vladimir Horowitz's return to the stage after a dozen years of self-imposed exile. Plus, Leonard Bernstein conducting an international orchestra at the Berlin Wall just after it fell. And Mstislav Rostropovich's (pictured) return to Russia, leading an American orchestra in an all-American tune, "Stars and Stripes Forever."
It started as a way to communicate in the gold mines of South Africa, where workers were chained together, forbidden to talk. Now it's an important and beloved part of South African culture. British composer David Bruce explains the story of gumboot dancing, and talks about his new piece called "Gumboots." We'll hear a performance from the Spoleto Festival USA.
Like other complex pieces of machinery, musical instruments evolve and improve over time. In 1795, Anton Weidinger invented the equivalent of power steering for the trumpet. He created a trumpet with keys, so the player could play every note with ease, not just some of them. Weidinger also happened to be a colleague of Joseph Haydn's. The result of that confluence was Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat. We'll hear a performance by British trumpeter Alison Balsom, from a concert last month in Manchester, England.
Two giant turbines loom large on the stage. Black iron hooks and chains dangle from the ceiling. No, it's not a medieval torture chamber. It's a concert venue, although an admittedly unusual one. It's the Heimbach Power plant in Germany, site of the Spannungen Chamber Music Festival. We'll hear a Dvorak piano quintet from Heimbach today on PT.
Share your question or comment about Performance Today. Individual questions and themes may be answered or incorporated into future episodes or digital updates.
