Performance Today®

Johann Sebastian Bach was a terrible composer. Or...so said a young rival of Bach's in the 1730s. Johann Scheibe wrote that Bach's compositions had a "bombastic and confused style" that "darkened their beauty." We'll compare, with a Bach Prelude and Fugue from the Aspen Festival, and a small symphony by Mr. Scheibe from the Schwetzingen Festival in Germany.

This year, for the first time in his career, the young Chinese pianist Lang Lang is playing chamber music. He joined violinist David Chan (concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and cellist Hai-Ye Ni (principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra) to play the Piano Trio by Tchaikovsky at Carnegie Hall in New York. Right before that concert, the trio joined Fred Child at the studios of WQXR in New York, to talk about the Tchaikovsky Trio, and to play the dramatic opening movement.

It's rare for the young Chinese pianist Lang Lang to play chamber music. But last month, he joined violinist David Chan (concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and cellist Hai-Ye Ni (principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra) to play the Piano Trio by Tchaikovsky at Carnegie Hall in New York. Right before that concert, the trio joined Fred Child at the studios of WQXR in New York, to talk about the Tchaikovsky Trio, and to play the dramatic opening movement.

Every Thursday this month, Julie Amacher joins Fred to recommend a new classical CD. This week, Julie is in love with conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and the under-25 players in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. Plus, we'll meet Sammy, the tiny white fluffball of a dog who goes everywhere with American pianist Anne Marie McDermott.

Pianist Jon Kimura Parker and trumpeter Mark Hughes had some intensive one-on-one meetings as they got ready to play Shostakovich's wild Concerto for Piano, Trumpet, and Strings with the Houston Symphony. They listened to an old recording with Shostakovich at the piano, and thought "there's no WAY to play it that fast!" But when the moment came...the adrenaline was flowing, and their performance had the same reckless abandon, and the same thrilling velocity as the one by the composer. We'll hear that astonishing concert performance at Jones Hall in Houston, Hans Graf conducting the Houston Symphony.

It was an epic Chopin evening in Berlin last month: Daniel Barenboim played both Chopin Piano Concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic. We heard No. 2 yesterday; No. 1 is on today's show. Ascher Fisch conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, Daniel Barenboim soloing, in concert at the Philharmonie in Berlin.

The term "busy as a bee" should be changed to "busy as a Barenboim." Pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim seems to work non-stop, performing at least 150 concerts a year. Today and tomorrow, we'll feature Barenboim in the two piano concertos by Frederic Chopin, from the same concert last month in Berlin. Asher Fisch conducts the Berlin Philharmonic.

Our weekly Piano Puzzler is on the way, as composer Bruce Adolphe takes up residence at the PT Piano. Bruce re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. A Performance Today listener calls in, tries to name the hidden tune, and the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking. (This week's caller is from Columbia, South Carolina.)

Those are the words to an old Russian folk song. Tchaikovsky heard a carpenter whistling the tune, and not long after that, it showed up in his String Quartet Number 1. The St. Petersburg String Quartet hails from Tchaikovsky's home town of St. Petersburg, Russia. They give a terrific performance of the string quartet, Vanya and all, on tour in New York City.