Performance Today®

Nicolas Slonimsky was one of the great characters of 20th century music. An unrivalled storyteller, who also dabbled in conducting, composition, piano, and writing about music. Slonimsky was a friend of everyone in the new music scene for 75 years, from Ravel and Gershwin to Frank Zappa and John Adams. When the 101 year-old Slonimsky died in 1995, John Adams wrote a piece in memory of his hyper-kinetic energy and good humor: "Slonimsky's Earbox." On today's show, Donald Runnicles leads the BBC Scottish Symphony, in concert at the 2009 Proms in London.

Legendary Swan Songs: the final concert performances by three 20th century masters. Leonard Bernstein was almost 72 years old in the fall of 1990, conducting a concert by the Boston Symphony. He'd been suffering from emphysema for several years. In the third movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Bernstein began coughing and couldn't stop. The concert almost came to a halt, but somehow Bernstein controlled his coughing fit, and kept going. We'll hear the final movement from that performance...which turned out to be the last notes of Bernstein's final concert. Also, the final delicate encore from Vladimir Horowitz at age 83 in Hamburg. And highlights from the last concert by violinist Nathan Milstein, in Stockholm in 1986.

Quartet San Francisco is Jeremy Cohen's way of combining his two great loves in life: classical music and non-classical music. Their new project is Cohen's arrangements of jazz classics by Dave Brubeck. We'll stop in at a legendary jazz club in San Francisco, Yoshi's, to hear the Quartet San Francisco, play "Take Five." And Jeremy Cohen talks about the challenge of arranging and playing jazz for string quartet.

The Imani Winds is commissioning ten new works to celebrate their ten years together. On today's show, we'll hear the world premiere of Jason Moran's "Cane," written for the Imani Winds. In it, Moran tells his own family history, centered near Louisiana's Cane River. Moran traces his ancestry through a slave woman named Coin-Coin. She won own freedom, and then became a successful plantation owner, earning money to purchase her own children's freedom. "Cane" is our weekly 21st-century feature.

Violinist Nikolaj Znaider is a big name in the world of classical music. And yet, he says there's nothing harder than playing Mozart. Many artists would agree. The legendary pianist Artur Schnabel said that Mozart is too easy for children, but too difficult for professionals. Meaning that it's not the notes that are the problem, it's bringing out the beauty of the notes in just the right interpretation. On today's show, Znaider proves he's up to the task, performing Mozart's fifth violin concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Quartet San Francisco is Jeremy Cohen's way of combining his two great loves in life: classical music and non-classical music. Their new project is Cohen's arrangements of jazz classics by Dave Brubeck. We'll stop in at a legendary jazz club in San Francisco, Yoshi's, to hear the Quartet San Francisco, play "Take Five." And Jeremy Cohen talks about the challenge of arranging and playing jazz for string quartet.

"Brooklyn Rider" is musically omnivorous. Every member of this string quartet is classically-trained, but having toured with Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble for ten years now, they're open to musical flavors from around the world. They'll join Fred in the studio for day two of music and conversation. Brooklyn Rider will play the final movement from Dvorak's "American" Quartet, a set of hauntingly beautiful Armenian folk songs, and a wildly eclectic piece by a member of the group, Colin Jacobsen.

According to Greek Mythology, Orpheus was the first poet-musician, combining the two art forms into something more powerful than either alone could achieve. Franz Liszt loved the myth of Orpheus. On today's show, we'll hear his tone poem, "Orpheus," and hear the words Liszt wrote about him. And another, more modern, musician-writer appears on the show. Noted blogger and pianist Jeremy Denk performs with violinist Ani Kavafian and cellist Gary Hoffman, in a New York City performance of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2.

Is it a 40-minute joke? It certainly has humor, but the 1903 Symphonia Domestica by Strauss is a serious symphony...that just happens to be inspired by an average day at home with the family. It has musical descriptions of putting the baby to sleep, the alarm clock going off in the morning, playful fights between husband and wife, etc. Our concert was three weeks ago at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Donald Runnicles leads the BBC Scottish Symphony.