Performance Today®

When music critic Alex Ross once tried to describe pianist Martha Argerich's playing, he bemoaned that his "well of superlatives had run dry." Argerich has been getting rave reviews, and exhausting everyone's supply of musical superlatives, since 1965. That was the year she took the world by storm, winning the Chopin Competition. We'll spend the bulk of hour one as Argerich devotees, focusing on her spectacular solo performances and collaborations with other artists. Plus, Rolf Lislevand on improvisation, and listener calls and emails.

A pair of concert performances on the way from the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, the gleaming stainless-steel concert hall on top of the hill in downtown Los Angeles. Leonard Slatkin leads Tchaikovsky's gloriously romantic "Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture," and Robert Spano conducts a bold and brassy performance of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3. And Bruce Adolphe joins Fred Child and a PT listener for this week's Piano Puzzler.

For the last three years, the Philadelphia Orchestra has been searching for a new music director. The search is over, and today we'll introduce you to him, Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin. We'll also hear him lead his other orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, in excerpts from Berlioz'"Symphonie Fantastique."

"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.