Performance Today®

A 1946 Warner Brothers cartoon called Rhapsody Rabbit featured Bugs Bunny in white tie and tails, contending with everything from audience coughing to an impish little mouse, as he hammered and thundered his way through Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 for Piano. Bugs puts in a brief appearance on the show today, before handing the reins over to the Liege Philharmonic. They'll play an orchestral arrangement of Liszt's most famous tune.

What could be more exciting for a musician than playing concertos with the world's great orchestras? Ask Joshua Bell that question, and he'll tell you: playing chamber music. Bell says there's nothing he likes better than making chamber music, taking an audience through an entire two-hour musical journey. He sets aside time in his schedule every year for a big recital tour. In today's show, we'll hear a highlight from this year's tour, a violin sonata by Edvard Grieg.

If your critics are accusing you of writing extravagant, self-indulgent music, maybe the best response isn't to write an over-the-top work called A Hero's Life, casting yourself as the hero. And when folks question you about it, maybe you shouldn't compare yourself with Napoleon and Alexander in your defense. But then, maybe you're not Richard Strauss, who did exactly that. Was he for real, or was it all a big joke? The story in today's show, and a performance by the Cleveland Orchestra.

This week, we welcome all our new listeners in Houston. PT is now being carried by Classical 91.7 in Houston. In today's show, we'll feature great performances by Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony and Da Camera of Houston, representing just a part of the vibrant arts scene in the nation's fourth-largest city.

Yesterday we heard Beethoven's First Symphony. Today we'll hear its younger brother, the Second, written just two years later. It's a sunny, cheerful work. But it was born amidst the anguish Beethoven was experiencing over his increasing deafness. Plus, two real-life musical siblings: Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff and the Tetzlaff Quartet, in concert in California.

When Beethoven's First Symphony premiered in Vienna in 1800, some listeners were shocked. It was so odd, so dissonant. They had no idea what they were in for with this guy. Beethoven would go on to revolutionize the form over the course of his nine symphonies. In today's show, we'll hear how it all began. Beethoven's First Symphony, from a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic.

This week, we welcome all our new listeners in Houston. PT is now being carried by KUHA in Houston. In today's show, we'll feature great performances by Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony and Da Camera of Houston, representing just a part of the vibrant arts scene in the nation's fourth-largest city.

Yesterday, we brought you Part I of Mahler's 8th Symphony, known as the Symphony of a Thousand. Today is the conclusion. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas leads the massed forces of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. MTT calls the work an "allegory of the distressed soul finding its way through trials to...blessedness."

Gustav Mahler's monumental Symphony Number 8 (the Symphony of a Thousand) is ambitious in almost every way. Not just its size (intended for an amassed orchestra and chorus of 1,000 people), but in its emotional and intellectual content. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have just completed a massive recording project, recording all of the Mahler symphonies. MTT and San Francisco perform part one of the Symphony of a Thousand in today's show. Look for part two tomorrow.