Performance Today®

Ernest Chausson was plagued by doubt and self-criticism. He was given to beating himself with his fists when he was unhappy with his composing. His perfectionism got in the way of him finishing anything. And yet, he wrote beautiful music. Claude Debussy was his friend, and encouraged him, saying "you don't let yourself go enough." The story of Ernest Chausson's odd life and puzzling death, plus a performance of his Concerto for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet from the Spoleto Festival USA.

The slow movement of Chopin's Second Piano Concerto is a passionate declaration of love by the smitten 19-year-old Chopin. Lang Lang was 12 when he first performed it. And what does a 12-year-old know about romance? Struggling to capture those emotions, so foreign to him, he asked his dad what to do. His advice: just think about the love you feel for your mom. The grown-up Lang Lang plays Chopin, in concert at the Concertgebouw.

Maurice Ravel was 31 when he began writing a piece that he called simply, "La Valse.""The Waltz." He was 45 when he finished it. In those 14 years, everything changed: Ravel, Europe, and the piece itself. It began as a light tribute to carefree Viennese waltzes. Ravel set the piece aside, then saw the agony of World War I firsthand. When he came back to his waltz, the world was very different place. He was a very different man. And La Valse was no longer a light tribute. In 13 minutes, you'll hear the waltz slowly go delirious, spin out of control, and finally, fly apart into chaos.

Most classical music concerts take place inside the concert hall, essentially a glorified box. Many of those boxes are rightly revered and cherished for their history, architecture, and acoustics. But today, we'll go outside the box. Today's show features performances from unusual locations, including a barge, a night club, and a former power plant.

Claude Debussy once tried his hand at painting, but decided music had a much better way of depicting the glint of sunlight on water, the ever-changing undulations of the sea, and the smell of a salty mist shimmering in the air. In today's show, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the New York Philharmonic in Debussy's masterpiece for the senses, "La Mer," or "The Sea."

Was he the most talented unknown composer of the 20th century? Some called him the "Canadian Mozart." Andre Mathieu was an astonishing prodigy as a composer and pianist. He played his own compositions at Carnegie Hall when he was 11. He beat the young Leonard Bernstein in a composition competition when he was 13. But he was also deeply troubled. He withdrew from public life before his 20s, and died, already forgotten, at age 39 in 1968. We'll hear the Tucson Symphony in concert, playing a set of Ballet Scenes by Andre Mathieu.

Is it a stupendous work of art, a shameless piece of self-promotion, or a mockery of the music business? Maybe it's all three. "Ein Heldenleben,""A Hero's Life," by (and about) Richard Strauss. Strauss told a friend "I don't see why I shouldn't write a symphony about myself, I find myself as interesting as Napoleon." Whether you take the grandiose plot seriously, or see it as Strauss poking fun at his critics, it's an astonishing and entertaining piece. Bernard Haitink conducts the Chicago Symphony, in concert at Orchestra Hall in downtown Chicago.

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida joins PT host Fred Child to talk about Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24. (She says "It is very dark, incredibly tragic," but the lilt in her voice conveys the beauty of that darkness.) We'll hear her concert performance with the Cleveland Orchestra. Plus two concerts in Vienna: Lang Lang plays Chopin's "Aeolian Harp" Etude in the sumptuous acoustics of the Golden Hall at the Musikverein, and Yefim Bronfman plays the Paganini Etude No. 2 by Franz Liszt, at the outdoor gardens of Schonbrunn Palace.

Claude Debussy once tried his hand at painting, but decided music had a much better way of depicting the glint of sunlight on water, the ever-changing undulations of the sea, and the smell of a salty mist shimmering in the air. In today's show, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the New York Philharmonic in Debussy's masterpiece for the senses, "La Mer," or "The Sea."