Performance Today®

Times were tough for Mozart in the summer of 1788. His financial life was a shambles, and he was reduced to writing a series of pitiful letters to a friend, pleading for money. But at the same time, he was also writing his final three symphonies, each of them a masterpiece. He churned them out over the course of two months that summer. We'll hear Mozart's Symphony Number 39, from a concert by James Levine and the Boston Symphony.

PT has had a memorable week at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Today, host Fred Child wraps up his stay there with two on-stage perfchats, music and conversation with several Aspen artists. Edgar Meyer plays one of his own virtuoso pieces for the double bass. And 14-year-old Simone Porter, an Aspen student violinist, wows the crowd with music by Sarasate.

Violinist Joshua Bell remembers being a 15-year-old student at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and how it changed his life. He'll tell the story, and we'll hear Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Ingrid Fliter, and others share their Aspen memories. And from the Aspen Music Festival, Joshua Bell joins the Aspen Chamber Symphony to play the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn.

Alan Fletcher is the President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival, more than a full-time job. But more than anything else, he says he considers himself to be a composer. A composer who just happens to have a great day job running America's biggest summer music festival. In today's show, we'll hear one of Fletcher's works, "Woman Holding a Balance," based on this painting by Vermeer.

Here at PT, we call them perfchats: music and conversation with some of the top artists in classical music. In today's show, the first in a series of perfchats from the Aspen Music Festival. Pianist Steven Osborne plays music by Ravel and Prokofiev, from a special event recorded at Aspen on Monday night. Plus, the art of busking at Aspen.

Violinist Joshua Bell remembers being a 15-year-old student at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and how it changed his life. He'll tell the story, and we'll hear Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Ingrid Fliter, and others share their Aspen memories. And from the Aspen Music Festival, Joshua Bell joins the Aspen Chamber Symphony to play the Violin Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn.

We tend to refer to it as simply the Aspen Festival or the Aspen Music Festival. But its full name is the Aspen Music Festival and School. Teaching and learning are a huge part of what goes on every summer in Aspen. Today, stories of learning from Aspen, including violinist Sarah Chang getting not only violin lessons, but driving lessons from her teacher, Dorothy DeLay. And cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han teach a master class to Aspen students.

All week long, PT will be coming to you from the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Host Fred Child is there. We'll be featuring interviews, special on-stage events, and great performances from America's biggest summer music festival. In today's show, a gondola ride up Aspen Mountain for an informal concert, and performances by Time for Three, guitarist Sharon Isbin, flutist Marina Piccinini, the Brasil Guitar Duo, and much more.

German pianist Alexander Schimpf won the Cleveland International Piano Competition last weekend in Cleveland. The win catapults him into a new arena, with a grand prize of $50,000 and two years of concerts. But he wasn't thinking about that when PT host Fred Child spoke with him shortly after his big win. Schimpf said he was thinking of his family back home in Germany. They listened to his gold-medal performance of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto over the internet a week ago. You can hear it in today's show.