Performance Today®

British composer and conductor Peter Maxwell Davies is considered a national treasure in the U.K. He celebrated his 75th birthday last month. The BBC Proms featured not one but two special concerts in Davies' honor. Davies humbly pronounced himself "thrilled to bits" at the honor. We'll hear a work from one of these concerts, where Davies conducted the Royal Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture.

Nothing but clarinets in hour 1, with single-reed masterpieces by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Steve Reich. (Don't miss Sabine Meyer's stellar performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, or Richie Hawley's hypnotic performance of "New York Counterpoint" by Steve Reich.) In hour 2, Zubin Mehta conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in the Symphony No. 4, by Brahms. A concert last month at the BBC Proms in London.

While Jean Sibelius was working on his fifth symphony, the Russians were occupying his native country of Finland. Food was scarce, his health was poor. Sibelius wrote in his diary: "In a deep valley again. But...God opens His door for a moment, and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony." Music direct from heaven (at least according to Sibelius) is on the way on today's PT, performed by Garry Walker and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

American composer Charles Ives had a day job selling insurance, so he could feed his family. But in his free time, he fed his own soul by writing music. Ives' third symphony is peppered with hymn tunes that most audience members of the day would have easily recognized. Today, those kinds of cultural references might not be so easily understood. See how many tunes you can recognize as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya perform Ives' third, nicknamed "Camp Meeting."

Tilting at windmills. Doing battle with a flock of sheep. Miguel de Cervantes' wildly delusional knight-errant, Don Quixote, has been a favorite literary character since he first appeared in 1605. Quixote puts in appearance on today's show in the form of Richard Strauss' tone poem of the same name. It calls for a solo cello and viola, portraying Don Quixote and his faithful sidekick, Sancho Panza. Cellist Tamas Varga and violist Christian Frohn are the featured soloists in this recent BBC Proms performance, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Zubin Mehta.

For 16 years, Jaap van Zweden was concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. It's one of the best jobs a violinist could ever hope for...and van Zweden quit, so he could chase his dream of becoming a conductor. This past season, van Zweden was back in Amsterdam...conducting his old band-mates, as the current concertmaster soloed in the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

American composer Charles Ives had a day job selling insurance, so he could feed his family. But in his free time, he fed his own soul by writing music. Ives' third symphony is peppered with hymn tunes that most audience members of the day would have easily recognized. Today, those kinds of cultural references might not be so easily understood. See how many tunes you can recognize as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya perform Ives' third, nicknamed "Camp Meeting."

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.