Performance Today®

Two great cellists were among the many outstanding performers at this summer's BBC Proms, the big music festival in London. Today's show features British cellist Steven Isserlis, 51, with a well-established musical career. And we'll also hear the young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, 28, a rising star. Isserlis plays a Dvorak rondo, and Weilerstein performs the slow movement of Shostakovich's first cello concerto, both from the Proms.

Every Friday on PT, we feature music from this century. This week's 21st century work is a curious collaboration that actually has its roots in the 16th century. It starts with poetry by Mary, Queen of Scots, who was executed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1587. Robert Schumann set some of her poetry to music in the 19th century. This year, British composer Robin Holloway added his own music to Schumann's songs. The result is called "Reliquary." We'll hear the world premiere by the BBC Philharmonic and soprano Dorothea Roschmann, from a Proms concert last month.

In today's show, a performance of a Haydn symphony that had a Viennese audience laughing out loud. We'll let you in on the joke, as Daniel Barenboim conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Haydn's "Farewell" symphony. Plus, pianist Yuja Wang gives a jaw-dropping performance of music from Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" in St. Paul.

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. Tilson Thomas 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. We'll feature Tilson Thomas and San Francisco in part one of the Symphony of a Thousand in today's show. Look for part two tomorrow.

Describing the vastness and mystery of Bach, pianist Simone Dinnerstein says, "If you...lie down in the country at night and...look up at the stars, and you don't know what any of it means...you're just looking at this huge vista, I would say that his music is like that." Dinnerstein shares some of that vastness and mystery in today's show, playing Bach's French Suite No. 5 in Berlin. Plus, conductor Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony perform Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in Dallas.

Last Wednesday was opening night for one of the top orchestras in the country: the New York Philharmonic. Alan Gilbert begins his second season as music director. To celebrate, we've got an all-New York hour of PT, including a highlight from last season. Alan Gilbert leads the New York Philharmonic in two movements from Mahler's Third Symphony, from a concert last September, on Gilbert's second day as music director. Plus, performances from the 92nd Street Y and New York's Columbia University.

The only American orchestra to play at the Proms in London this year was the Minnesota Orchestra. They wrapped up the second of their two Proms concerts with a powerful and exciting performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. One critic called it "a Beethoven Ninth for our times." We'll hear the final two movements of the Ninth from that memorable Proms concert, as well as the last half of Anton Bruckner's massive Fourth Symphony. Music director Osmo Vanska led the performance.

There's a word in the Finnish language called "sisu." It means a sort of grim determination in the face of adversity. Those who know the Finnish culture and personality say they're infused through-and-through with sisu. In today's show, Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen leading the New Zealand Symphony in the Third Symphony by fellow Finn Jean Sibelius. And a piece that Sibelius called festive, his Andante Festivo. But it's the kind of festive that only a Finn with a whole lot of sisu could have written.