Performance Today®

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.

A Requiem is often a prayer for the souls of the dead. But in his German Requiem, Johannes Brahms chose words from the Gospel of Matthew that offer comfort to the living in the face of death. "Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." On Thursday's Performance Today, music of survivors in a performance of Brahms' Requiem by the Dresden Staatskapelle in concert last month in Dresden, Germany.

On today's program, 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. We'll also feature the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, who reveled in breaking his father Johann Sebastian Bach's musical rules.

Ask any New York City police officer how you get to Carnegie Hall and they'll tell you: "Practice, man. Practice." On today's show, timpanist Jonathan Haas takes us inside his practice studio to demonstrate how to get a full, round tone without annoying the neighbors. We'll hear him perform a concerto for timpani by Georg Druschetzky and music from the first English folk revival, Delius' Brigg Fair.

He was an obscure dead composer, but Mozart loved his work. He even arranged some of the old guy's keyboard pieces for string quartet. In today's show, the Orion String Quartet performs some of those curious Mozart arrangements. And that nearly-forgotten composer? That would be Johann Sebastian Bach. Plus, highlights from an Alan Hovhaness centennial concert in Berkeley, California.

In today's show, three compelling stories of musicians returning to performing after illness or injury. We'll hear from the young violinist Augustin Hadelich, severely burned in a fire when he was a teenager. Leon Fleisher spent decades as a left-hand only pianist, after losing the use of his right hand. After intensive therapy, he's now playing with both hands. And cellist Truls Mork is back after a mysterious illness sidelined him for a year and a half.

Whatever the enigma is behind Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations" - and we've had theories posited on Performance Today - it's still magnificent music, a grand showcase for an outstanding orchestra. Peter Oundjian will lead one, the Toronto Symphony, at a concert in Toronto.