Performance Today®

In Hungarian lore, anything you say after a sneeze can be taken as gospel truth. Hence, the musical "sneeze" at the beginning of the Hary Janos Suite, by Zoltan Kodaly. The piece tells the story of a legendary liar, bragging about his extraordinary, but fictional, exploits. ("I singlehandedly defeated the French! Napoleon was on his knees, begging for mercy!") But...he vows that every word is true. Gilbert Varga leads the Central German Radio Symphony, in concert in Leipzig.

Three musical heroes make an appearance today. Lohengrin was the mysterious knight of the Holy Grail, who rescued a damsel by riding in a boat drawn by swans. We'll hear the prelude to Act III of Wagner's "Lohengrin." Don Quixote was the mad anti-hero who tilted at windmills and waged war against armies of sheep. Georg Philipp Telemann brought him to life in a suite for strings, performed at New Mexico's Music from Angel Fire. And finally, the hero of the bullfight, the torero. The Jupiter String Quartet plays Joaquin Turina's "Bullfighter's Prayer" at Music@Menlo. Plus, the hero of the Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe.

The gold mines of South Africa under Apartheid were grim and difficult places. Black South Africans worked in the mines, chained together and forbidden to speak. Even so, they found ways to communicate, using rhythmic boot-stomping, chest-slapping and chain-jangling. It's called gumboot dancing, and it's become part of South African culture. It also inspired this week's 21st century music feature, "Gumboots," by English composer David Bruce. We'll hear a performance by clarinetist Todd Palmer and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, from this summer's Spoleto Festival USA.

A club in Prague that called itself a "patriotic and gymnastic society" was looking for flashy new fanfares. In 1925, they asked composer Leos Janacek to write one for them. But when Janacek began working on it, he realized he had bigger ideas than simple trumpet tunes. The fanfares turned into a full-blown orchestral work with a brass backbone: the Sinfonietta. Today we'll hear a performance by Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Three musical heroes make an appearance today. Lohengrin was the mysterious knight of the Holy Grail, who rescued a damsel by riding in a boat drawn by swans. We'll hear the prelude to Act III of Wagner's "Lohengrin." Don Quixote was the mad anti-hero who tilted at windmills and waged war against armies of sheep. Georg Philipp Telemann brought him to life in a suite for strings, performed at New Mexico's Music from Angel Fire. And finally, the hero of the bullfight, the torero. The Jupiter String Quartet plays Joaquin Turina's "Bullfighter's Prayer" at Music@Menlo. Plus, pianist Paul Lewis playing Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto at the Proms, and the hero of the Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe.

The Sphinx Academy The debut of a new weekly series on PT: Transformations™. We'll look at moments, large and small, when music transforms our lives. This week, we'll meet some of the young musicians at the 2010 Sphinx Performance Academy in Chicago, designed to help up-and-coming African-American and Latino string players. Plus, of all the wacky audience-participation traditions at the Proms in London, none tops the British Sea Songs, by Henry Wood. It's the Rocky Horror Picture Show of classical music, with the audience joining in on many levels throughout the piece. We'll hear the audience humming, whistling, singing, crying, and honking along from the 2010 Proms in London.

Pianist Maurizio Pollini says it's his job as a performer to "make the sense clear: the necessity of the notes." Not just to get the notes right or even just to make them expressive or beautiful. He says he has to convince the listener of the rightness of what the composer wrote, so that it sounds as if no other notes could possibly follow. We think Pollini does a convincing job on Mozart's Piano Concerto Number 12, in a performance with the Vienna Philharmonic.

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.