Performance Today®

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.

In today's show, a performance of a Haydn symphony that had a Viennese audience laughing out loud. We'll let you in on the joke, as Daniel Barenboim conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Haydn's "Farewell" symphony. Plus, pianist Yuja Wang gives a jaw-dropping performance of music from Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" in St. Paul.

Yesterday, we brought you Part I of Mahler's 8th Symphony, known as the Symphony of a Thousand. Today is the conclusion. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas leads the massed forces of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Pacific Boychoir, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Tilson Thomas calls the work an "allegory of the distressed soul finding its way through trials to...blessedness."

Gustav Mahler's monumental Symphony Number 8 (the "Symphony of a Thousand") is ambitious in almost every way. Not just its size (intended for an amassed orchestra and chorus of 1,000 people), but in its emotional and intellectual content. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have just completed a massive recording project, recording all of the Mahler symphonies. We'll feature Tilson Thomas and San Francisco in part one of the Symphony of a Thousand in today's show. Look for part two tomorrow.