Performance Today®

"Dear Mr. Grieg: I am writing about a project I propose, and I invite your participation. I propose to adapt my poem Peer Gynt for the stage. You will compose the music, yes?" That letter was from playwright Henrik Ibsen to composer Edvard Grieg in 1873. Grieg said yes, and the result was some of the greatest theater music ever written. Neeme Jarvi leads the Lucerne Symphony in a performance of Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, from Lucerne, Switzerland. And from that same concert, music from the play "Pelleas and Melisande," by Jean Sibelius.

History isn't absolutely clear on this point, but we're pretty sure today is Ludwig van Beethoven's birthday. Most of us have the image of the older Beethoven in our heads: stone deaf, isolated, angry, tormented. Some of that late Beethoven is in the show today, but also some early Beethoven, like a charming little Sonatina for recorder and guitar from the Minnesota Beethoven Festival. Plus Beethoven's massive oddity for orchestra, chorus, and piano soloist: the Choral Fantasy, from a concert in San Francisco.

Ottorino Respighi loved his adopted home city of Rome, especially the hundreds of fountains. He once said, "I wonder why no one has ever thought of making the fountains of Rome 'sing,' for they are, after all, the very voice of the city." Since no one else thought to do it, Respighi took on the job. The result was his orchestral tone poem, "The Fountains of Rome," with its evocative depictions of splashing, gurgling, spurting water in the Eternal City. Vladimir Ashkenazy leads the San Francisco Symphony in a performance from Davies Symphony Hall.

Sometimes, it helps to be reminded of why music is so important. Latvian composer Peteris Vasks wrote, "Beauty and harmony are rare in life, but in music, they are possible. I say 'Yes' until my last breath, to the beauty of the world." We'll hear Vasks saying "Yes" to beauty, in his lovely Cantabile for Strings, from a concert in Monaco. Plus, the women of Anonymous 4 join host Fred Child for music and conversation.

It was a memorable collision between technology and art. A new instrument had just been invented in France: the celeste, a keyboard instrument with a sound like a tinkly set of magic bells. Peter Tchaikovsky heard it on a trip to Paris, and knew instantly that he had the perfect tune for it. Nowadays, people automatically associate the sound of the celeste with the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from his ballet, "The Nutcracker." At the premiere, the audience was astounded at the new invention. We'll hear Act II from the Nutcracker today, including that big celeste solo. Simon Rattle leads the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 1917, British composer Arnold Bax went to see the ruins of an ancient castle, where legend says King Arthur was born. Bax was inspired to write a symphonic poem about it. The result is called "Tintagel," named for that mysterious castle in Cornwall. Thomas Dausgaard leads the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, from a concert at the Concertgebouw. And Bruce Adolphe stops by for this week's Piano Puzzler.

It's Christmas Eve, and there's a big party. Young Clara gets a special present, a nutcracker. At midnight, the Christmas tree grows magically, and the Nutcracker springs to life, doing battle with an army of mice. It's Act One of "The Nutcracker," by Peter Tchaikovsky. Conductor Simon Rattle says that the more he listened to Tchaikovsky's masterpiece, the more fascinated he became by it. Today, Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic perform Act One of Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker." And they'll be back on Monday's show for Act Two.

When it came to writing symphonies, Johannes Brahms entered the game relatively late. He was in his forties when he finished his first one, having labored over it for almost 15 years. The second was a much easier birth. He wrote it over the course of one glorious summer in southern Austria. Brahms joked that it was a region where "the melodies were so abundant, one had to be careful not to step on them." Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony take care with Brahms' lovely melodies, in a performance from San Francisco's Davies Hall.

In 1917, British composer Arnold Bax went to see the ruins of an ancient castle, where legend says King Arthur was born. Bax was inspired to write a symphonic poem about it. The result is called "Tintagel," named for that mysterious castle in Cornwall. Thomas Dausgaard leads the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, from a concert at the Concertgebouw. And Bruce Adolphe stops by for this week's Piano Puzzler.