Performance Today®

The Miro Quartet is quite serious about following Beethoven's musical directions, but we caught them this summer in California violating one of Beethoven's wishes. Beethoven wrote: "this quartet is for a small circle of connoisseurs, and is never to be played in public." And what did the Miros do? They played it at the 2010 Music at Menlo Festival, giving a brilliant performance of Beethoven's Op. 95 Quartet in F-minor. Plus Brian Newhouse joins PT host Fred Child to preview the live broadcast of the Last Night of the Proms from London on Saturday night. And great performances of American violin concertos by Gil Shaham and Leila Josefowicz.

We're looking ahead to the birthday of the great Estonian composer Arvo Part, he turns 75 on Saturday. We'll trace the evolution of his "mystical minimalist" sound, and hear two gorgeous examples of his work from concerts last month at the BBC Proms in London: the final section from his 1982 piece "Passio," and the final section from his Symphony No. 4 from 2008. Plus: a "laugh-out-loud" Flute Trio by Joseph Haydn, from the 2010 Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina. (Spoleto chamber music host Geoff Nuttall told the audience to feel free to laugh during the wacky rondo section, and they did!)

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe joins PT host Fred Child with a Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of classical composer. A PT listener calls in and tries to guess two things: the name of the composer whose style Bruce is imitating, and the name of the hidden tune. Bruce Adolphe has a brand new puzzler this week, play along and see if you can name the composer and the tune. And our most unusual concert highlight of the year (so far!): Thomas Bloch plays his glass harmonica in a limestone cave in northeast Spain. Bloch plays an eerie 2-minute version of "Crystal Silence" by Chick Corea.

Pianist Mitsuko Uchida joins PT host Fred Child to talk about Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24. (She says "It is very dark, incredibly tragic," but the lilt in her voice conveys the beauty of that darkness.) And we'll hear her concert performance with the Cleveland Orchestra. Plus two concerts in Vienna: Lang Lang plays Chopin's "Aeolian Harp" Etude in the sumptuous acoustics of the Golden Hall at the Musikverein, and Yefim Bronfman plays the Paganini Etude No. 2 by Franz Liszt, at the outdoor gardens of Schonbrunn Palace.

Soprano Jessye Norman is legendary for her operatic roles, but she grew up listening to (and loving) all kinds of music: jazz, blues, spirituals, the great American songbook. She performed recently in Berlin with a small jazz ensemble, and that concert is now a 2-CD set -- "Roots: My Life, My Music." PT host Fred Child talks with Jessye Norman about her earliest musical memories, and about the hidden meaning in spirituals. We'll sample highlights from her Berlin concert recording. And we'll hear from Norman's exquisite 1982 performance of the heartbreakingly beautiful "Four Last Songs" by Richard Strauss.

Composer Bruce Adolphe (pictured) joins PT host Fred Child with this week's Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. Play along as a PT listener tries to name the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking, and the hidden tune. Plus, a full hour of music inspired by castles, and recent concerts that took place inside castles. A castle-inspired symphonic poem by Arnold Bax, the Tokyo Quartet and Leif Ove Andsnes in concert at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and Vivaldi's "Summer" in concert at the Castello di Amorosa (the "Castle of Love") in Napa Valley, California.

Every now and then, there is a concert performance that galvanizes an audience. If you're there, you feel it happening -- you unconsciously lean forward in your seat, grip the arm rests, the hair on the back of your neck stands up. There was a concert three weeks ago in London that had that effect: the audience shouted and stomped their approval, the critics raved. The concert performance of the summer (so far!) at the 2010 Proms in London: Valery Gergiev conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in an epic performance of the Firebird, by Igor Stravinsky.

Growing up, Russian pianist Denis Matsuev had a hard time deciding between music and sports. He did both for a long time. But after two broken arms (caused by sports, not music), his dad told him it was time to choose one or the other. Lucky for us, Matsuev chose the more skeletally-friendly of the two: music. We'll hear two by Matsuev, including Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini," from the Colmar International Festival in France.

Composer Bruce Adolphe (pictured) joins PT host Fred Child with this week's Piano Puzzler. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. Play along as a PT listener tries to name the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking, and the hidden tune. Plus, a full hour of music inspired by castles, and recent concerts that took place inside castles. A castle-inspired symphonic poem by Arnold Bax, the Tokyo Quartet and Leif Ove Andsnes in concert at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, and Vivaldi's "Summer" in concert at the Castello di Amorosa (the "Castle of Love") in Napa Valley, California.