American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein completely changed the way she practiced after one "nightmare performance" where she suffered a memory lapse. In today's show, she joins host Fred Child in our occasional series on the Art of Practice. And Emily Reese, avid gamer and host of the popular podcast Top Score, joins Fred to talk about classical music and video games.
Robert Schumann's Cello Concerto lay in a stack of papers, collecting dust, on the desk of the great 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim. It wasn't discovered until after Joachim's death. Now, you may wonder what a violinist was doing with Schumann's music. In today's show, the story of the many transformations of Schumann's Cello Concerto, and a performance by a violinist, from a concert in Australia.
It's long been known that music has the ability to help transport us out of our daily lives. It's one of the reasons so many of us listen to it. In today's show, we have a whole hour of music about other realms of being, and higher planes of existence. "Visions of Another World," by Karim Al-Zand, "Music of the Spheres," by Josef Strauss, and a Transcendental Etude by Franz Liszt. Plus an ethereal Norwegian vision of heaven from the women of Trio Mediaeval.
When you think of three instruments that just naturally belong together, it's not likely your first thought would be banjo, string bass, and tabla (Indian drums). Banjoist Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer, and tabla player Zakir Hussain come from very different musical backgrounds, but they've formed a unique and compelling trio that is capturing the attention of music lovers. PT's Fred Child hosted a live event recently in Miami, featuring interviews and performances by Fleck, Meyer, and Hussain. We'll hear highlights on today's show.
Bruce Adolphe and the Piano Puzzler have been on a summer vacation for the last couple of weeks, leading to more than a few cases of Puzzler withdrawal in the PT community. Luckily, they're back in today's show. Play along with Fred and Bruce; see if you can guess the hidden tune and the mystery composer in this week's Piano Puzzler.
Maybe all he really wanted to do was direct, like the old Hollywood joke goes. But the fact is that Josef Stalin, murderous Russian despot, did get involved in the movie biz. In today's show, the story of Alexander Nevsky, a 1938 propaganda film ordered up by Stalin, and a concert performance of the film score, written by Sergei Prokofiev.
Every day on PT, listeners can enjoy terrific live performances from around the world. But how did those musicians get to be so good? What kind of hard work lies behind the seemingly effortless performance on stage? In today's show, another in our occasional series that we call the Art of Practicing. Trumpeter Manny Laureano says he's more like a singer than you might think.
Bruce Adolphe and the Piano Puzzler have been on a summer vacation for the last couple of weeks, leading to more than a few cases of Puzzler withdrawal in the PT community. Luckily, they're back in today's show. Play along with Fred and Bruce; see if you can guess the hidden tune and the mystery composer in this week's Piano Puzzler.
Most people have never heard of Canadian composer Andre Mathieu. Mathieu was a rising star in the 1930s and 1940s. But he led a troubled life, dropped out of the music scene, and died in obscurity in 1968. Some call him the Canadian Mozart. His style, though, is closer to Rachmaninoff, who called Mathieu a genius. On today's show, Alain Lefevre performs Mathieu's fourth piano concerto with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
