Performance Today®

"I have embraced the summer dawn." French composer Arthur Honegger wrote those words upon completing his "Summer Pastorale." And if Honegger embraced the dawn, then perhaps Othmar Schoeck could say the same for the evening, with his "Summer Night." On this first day of summer, we'll hear both works. Plus, music for the hours in between: Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun."

Pianist Jonathan Biss says that unlike Beethoven, who seemed to be writing for the whole universe, Robert Schumann was "just trying to reach one tormented soul." Biss says it's that personal aspect of Schumann's music that draws him in. On today's show, Biss plays Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, part of our continuing celebration of Schumann's 200th birthday this month.

Sunday is Father's Day. On today's show, guitarist Pepe Romero honors both his father and his son. He'll perform a work written by his father, Celedonio Romero, on a guitar that was built by his son, Pepe, Jr. Ian Watt says he got his start as a child, playing air guitar to his father's rock-n-roll records. Now he's a classical guitarist. We'll hear his performance at last year's Parkening International Guitar Competition. We'll also hear music by a 17-year-old kid who owed a lot to his dad, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Plus, it's the end of our two-week Robert Schumann bicentennial celebration.

Today's show features performances from special places, and also music about special places. From a lonely Scottish island (Peter Maxwell Davies'"Farewell to Stromness") to the top of a Norwegian mountain (Ole Bull's "A Mountain Vision"), we'll feature music that evokes that special sense of place. Plus, Robert Schumann's third symphony, about another very special place, the Rhine River.

In 1844, Robert Schumann had what we might now call a nervous breakdown. He was plagued with nightmares, hallucinations, panic, and despair. As he began to emerge from it, he wrote, "Drums and trumpets have been blaring in my head. I have no idea what will come of it." What came of it was his second symphony. In today's show, Hans Graf leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a performance, part of our week-long look at all the Schumann symphonies.

When Clara Wieck married Robert Schumann, she was an internationally-famous pianist, and he was a struggling young composer. With Clara's encouragement, Robert's career flourished. But at what price? While she continued to perform, she lost her own confidence as a composer, and eventually stopped writing. In today's show, we'll hear two of her works. Pianist Benjamin Hochman plays one of her romances in North Carolina, and Natalia Ehwald performs her piano concerto, along with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Warsaw. Plus, we'll feature Robert Schumann's four symphonies, every day this week.

Pianist Jonathan Biss says that unlike Beethoven, who seemed to be writing for the whole universe, Robert Schumann was "just trying to reach one tormented soul." Biss says it's that personal aspect of Schumann's music that draws him in. On today's show, Biss plays Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, part of our continuing celebration of Schumann's 200th birthday this month.

Today, we're continuing our PT party for Robert Schumann's 200th birthday. There's much about his life that's worthy of a Gothic novel: passion, romance, madness, death. If you add in a seance and a brush with Hitler's Nazi Germany, it could be a summer blockbuster. The funny thing is, it's all true. The seance and the Nazis don't enter the picture until 80 years after Schumann's death, and all center around the premiere of his violin concerto. All the details are in hour two, plus a performance by violinist Thomas Zehetmair and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Here on PT, we often talk about the meaning of music, what the composer was trying to say. Robert Schumann made it easy for us. He spelled it out, literally, in his music. In today's show, host Fred Child sits down at the PT piano, and demonstrates some of the hidden meanings in Schumann's music, where he used the notes of the scale to spell out words and names in his melodies. Plus, a string quartet by Schumann written during a creative outburst in the summer of 1842. The Takacs Quartet performs at the Aspen Music Festival.