Performance Today®

It was the hottest ticket of the 2011 BBC Proms, the July performance of William Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 1, the Gothic Symphony. A massive work that calls for 1000 musicians and spans about three hours, it hadn't been performed in Britain in over a generation. The only place you can hear it outside the U.K. is right here on PT. We'll have highlights in today's show.

With apologies to great Spanish composers, the fact is that many of the best Spanish-sounding works in classical music were written by the French. In today's show, we'll hear two of the best: Claude Debussy's Iberia and Maurice Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso, from a recent concert at the Proms in London. It's Spanish music by French composers, played by a British orchestra.

Robert Schumann had a budding career as a concert pianist, until he injured his right hand from too much practicing. In today's show, the piece that might have been Schumann's undoing, his Toccata in C Major. Most pianists shy away from it because of its difficulty. Host Fred Child demonstrates what makes this piece so arduous, and we'll hear a performance by Evgeny Kissin from Verbier, Switzerland.

Beethoven at 45 was a confirmed bachelor. Hard to know how much was by choice, and how much by circumstance. Turns out, he did have his eye on someone. Beethoven didn't say who she was, but left behind a set of love songs to his "Distant Beloved." We'll hear them, from a concert in distant Sydney, Australia. Plus, Beethoven's Triple Concerto from the Proms in London.

This weekend on PT, we'll bring 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. 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."

All week long, we've been featuring stories about the Marlboro Music Festival, and all the great musicians who've been there. Today, the story of someone else who has supposedly walked the halls of Marlboro. Turns out, there's a ghost. In today's show, the story of Emily Mather, the ghost of Marlboro, and a performance of Beethoven's Ghost Trio.

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.