Performance Today®

Every summer in London, classical music becomes a pop-culture phenomenon, thanks to the festival called the BBC Proms. Prom is short for promenade, and if you're willing to prom, that is, stand during the concert, you can get in for about eight bucks. We'll get you in to the 2011 Proms for free, starting today. Renaud and Gautier Capucon play the Brahms Double Concerto with the Radio France Philharmonic.

All week, PT has been taking a look at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. So what makes Marlboro so special to the musicians who go there? A combination of music and community. Pianist Jonathan Biss says that "Marlboro is real life. The rest of the world is just a nightmare." In today's show, great Marlboro performances of music by Robert Schumann, Richard Strauss, and Max Reger.

A sad, simple tune for voice and piano balloons into a showcase for piano alone. Which then morphs into a romantic barn-burner for piano and orchestra. In today's show, the story of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, and two composers who, thankfully, just couldn't leave well enough alone.

All this week on PT, we'll be bringing you great performances from the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Founder Rudolf Serkin called it a "republic of equals," with young professionals and seasoned veterans making music together side-by-side. In today's show, we'll meet co-artistic directors Mitsuko Uchida and Richard Goode, and hear performances from what one Marlboro board member calls "a summer camp for geniuses."

Two musical games in the show today. Claude Debussy wrote music for a ballet about a game of tennis. Debussy called it simply Jeux, or Games. We'll hear a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Bruce Adolphe drops by for our weekly PT game, the Piano Puzzler. This week's very special guest is organist Cameron Carpenter.

The greatest musicians are part athlete and part story-teller. Able to pull off amazing technical feats, and to capture the emotional essence of the music at the same time. Cellist Yeesun Kim says she and the other members of the Borromeo String Quartet work on learning the narrative and drama of a piece, in addition to learning the notes. They play a Beethoven string quartet in today's show. Plus, Michael Tilson Thomas (pictured) tells the story of the life of a musician in his Notturno for solo flute and orchestra. Flutist Paula Robison performs it with the San Francisco Symphony.

The biggest summer music festival in the world, the BBC Proms, is underway in London. We'll have highlights from the 2011 Proms all summer long. And in today's show, we'll revisit some big moments from Proms of the past, including Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic performing Tchaikovsky's Tempest.

Two musical games in the show today. Claude Debussy wrote music for a ballet about a game of tennis. Debussy called it simply Jeux, or Games. We'll hear a performance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And Bruce Adolphe drops by for our weekly PT game, the Piano Puzzler. This week's very special guest is organist Cameron Carpenter.

Czech composer Bedrich Smetana wrote a set of tone poems that he called Ma Vlast. A literal translation is My Country. But a more idiomatic translation might be My Homeland, a name that gives that sense of groundedness and belonging. Today and tomorrow, a look at Smetana's homeland. We'll hear four of the six pieces, including the most famous, The Moldau.