Performance Today®

Mozart wrote classy (and classical) music, but wasn't necessarily the classiest guy around. Let's just call him earthy, and leave it at that. Pianist Jonathan Biss doesn't go that far, but thinks a certain amount of irreverence is important for anyone who walks on stage to perform. "Nothing is sacred," he says. We'll hear these two irreverent souls together when Biss performs Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 with the San Francisco Symphony.

It's an ancient, simple story of boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy loses girl when she is abducted by pirates. Boy gets girl back, thanks to the intervention of a deity who is half-man and half-goat. OK, maybe the story of Daphnis and Chloe isn't so simple after all. But boy and girl live happily ever after in Maurice Ravel's ravishing, shimmering coming-of-age love story. The Montreal Symphony plays Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2, from a concert in Montreal.

It's hard to think of two more opposite characters in classical music than Dmitri Shostakovich and Martha Argerich. Argerich, the idiosyncratic free spirit, who says what she thinks and does what she wants. And Shostakovich, whose career and even his life depended on him toeing the Soviet party line. These opposites team up in today's show, as Martha Argerich performs Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto from the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

It was a marathon event, a chamber music concert that lasted almost 12 hours. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the Young Concert Artists organization, a group devoted to launching the careers of outstanding young musicians. We'll hear highlights from that super-sized concert that featured nearly 100 past and present YCA artists. Plus, Michael Tilson Thomas leads the San Francisco Symphony in Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, the Eroica.

Like many working mothers, Clara Schumann worried about her children when she wasn't there. "Give my little ones, for whom I yearn so much, 1000 kisses," she wrote while away on concert tour. Clara Schumann was one of the top pianists of her day, a much sought-after concert artist. She was also the family breadwinner during her husband Robert's long battle with mental illness. In today's show, a piano concerto by Clara Schumann, in honor of Mother's Day.

Like many working mothers, Clara Schumann worried about her children when she wasn't there. "Give my little ones, for whom I yearn so much, 1000 kisses," she wrote while away on concert tour. Clara Schumann was one of the top pianists of her day, a much sought-after concert artist. She was also the family breadwinner during her husband Robert's long battle with mental illness. In today's show, a piano concerto by Clara Schumann, in honor of Mother's Day.

Author Donna Leon joined PT host Fred Child recently to talk about her latest book, "Handel's Bestiary." It's an overview of all the animals that appear in arias from Handel's many operas. In today's show, we'll hear three of those bestial portraits: the tiger, the bee, and the moth. Plus, we have special music in honor of today's big Mexican holiday, Cinco de Mayo.

All this week on PT, we've been observing Critters Week: music about and inspired by animals. There's no fur in today's show, but an ample supply of feathers and fins. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida and friends perform Schubert's Trout Quintet from the Marlboro Music Festival. The work got its name from a tune Schubert used in the final movement: a song about a happy trout, splashing in a stream.

The Tokyo String Quartet, perhaps surprisingly, has never been based in Tokyo, or even in Japan. Even so, they maintain close ties to Japan. So after this spring's devastating earthquake and tsunami, the members of the Tokyo String Quartet were quick to arrange a benefit concert. We'll hear highlights in today's show, including Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, in its original version for string quartet.