Performance Today®

Vienna's Musikverein is one of those spectacular old European concert halls. The walls and ceilings shimmer with real gold. And the acoustics are every bit as magnificent as the decor. Up until recently, pianist Lang Lang had never played there. He finally got his chance, playing a solo recital that included Beethoven's "Appassionata" Sonata. It's in today's show. Plus, we'll hear a performance from the Musikverein from a special New Year's Day concert. Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic rattled those golden walls and ceilings with Johann Strauss, Jr.'s "Thunder and Lightning Polka."

Benjamin Britten drew from his own experience of the sea when writing his opera Peter Grimes. Britten grew up on the wild and unpredictable North Sea coast, and it shows in his music. He painted a portrait of the benevolence and malevolence of the sea as only one who knows it well can. In today's show, Mark Elder leads the Halle Orchestra in Four Sea Interludes from Britten's Peter Grimes.

Peter Tchaikovsky's violin concerto had a rocky start. The first two violinists who tried to master it gave up. The third gave the work its premiere, but was panned by critics. One said the soloist had not so much played the violin as "torn it apart, pounded it black and blue." Nowadays, the Tchaikovsky concerto is an audience favorite, a staple in every violinist's repertoire. We'll hear one of the best, Christian Tetzlaff, in concert with the Montreal Symphony.

Aaron Copland was working on a new project in 1944, a collaboration with choreographer Martha Graham. There was a rough story line about a young couple starting out married life in rural Pennsylvania. But the ballet didn't have a name, so Copland called it simply, Ballet for Martha. Only at the last minute did it get its real name, Appalachian Spring. In today's show, we'll hear Aaron Copland getting a good chuckle out of the story (from a 1980 interview), and a performance from Los Angeles.

Benjamin Britten drew from his own experience of the sea when writing his opera Peter Grimes. Britten grew up on the wild and unpredictable North Sea coast, and it shows in his music. He painted a portrait of the benevolence and malevolence of the sea as only one who knows it well can. In today's show, Mark Elder leads the Halle Orchestra in Four Sea Interludes from Britten's Peter Grimes.

Violinist Midori joined host Fred Child in our PT studios recently for an hour of music and conversation. She talks 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, Marin Alsop leads the Baltimore Symphony in a performance of Dvorak's Seventh Symphony.

Whenever King Louis XIV traveled, his entire court traveled with him including musicians. Composer Francois Couperin earned a decent living, got to stay at Versailles and every Sunday, at the king's request, he performed the same four orchestral suites he had written because they were the king's favorite. We'll listen to those tunes which made life very comfortable for Couperin and his king.

This weekend, PT remembers American composer Lee Hoiby who died on Monday at age 85. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of a used-car salesman.

Music scholars have just confirmed what they hoped was true: a 200 year-old nightshirt recently found in a closet in Vienna did indeed belong to Beethoven. The historical significance is not in the cloth, though, but in the musical sketch inked on the sleeve. Pianist Stephen Hough breathes life into this newly discovered Beethoven melody on Today's Performance Today.