Performance Today®

For Ludwig van Beethoven, the year 1802 was a year of both confidence and despair. He was on a creative high, composing almost non-stop. And yet, he knew he was going deaf. He wrote, "As the leaves of autumn fall and are withered, so has my hope been blighted." Out of that mix came the second symphony, full of audacity and wit. We'll hear a recent concert performance by Christoph von Dohnanyi and the North German Radio Symphony.

Most of us have any number of unfinished projects around the house or at work. Empty photo albums, unwritten family histories, that pile of junk mail on the desk. Before you tackle any of it, tune into today's show and hear Franz Schubert's most famous loose end. Lorin Maazel leads the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony, from a recent concert in Munich. Plus, Joshua Bell performs the Mendelssohn violin concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

It's Memorial Day, a day on which we honor those men and women who have died in service to their country. From Dublin, Ireland, we'll hear Aaron Copland's memorable "Fanfare for the Common Man," written to inspire Americans during World War II. And the men of Cantus sing Lee Hoiby's "Last Letter Home," a setting of a letter from a U.S. soldier to his family, written just two weeks before he was killed in Iraq. Plus, two performances of Samuel Barber's iconic "Adagio for Strings."

In 1938, composer Paul Hindemith fled Nazi Germany and later came to the U.S. One of his first projects here was to write a ballet based on themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Weber's tunes were charming but insubstantial. But Hindemith took that music of limited possibilities and turned it into something spectacular. His "Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber" is in today's show, performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Performance Today comes to you from the Virginia Arts Festival today and Monday. The VAF is a six-week celebration of arts and culture centered in and around Norfolk, Virginia. Host Fred Child is there, broadcasting from the studios of WHRO in Williamsburg. On today's show, we'll hear a recent VAF performance by the Orion String Quartet, playing Beethoven and Bach.

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was fed up with people trying to attach hidden meanings to his music. When one critic tried calling Vaughan Williams' sixth symphony his "War Symphony," the composer had enough. He sniffed, "It never seems to occur to people that a man might just want to write a piece of music." We'll have that music-without-a-deeper-meaning, the sixth symphony, in today's show. Jaap Van Zweden leads the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, in concert in Amsterdam.

The book of Genesis tells the story of God creating order and beauty out of chaos and darkness. Today's show starts with some astonishing music for its time. In 1738, Jean-Fery Rebel depicted that primordial chaos in his ballet, "Les Elemens" ("The Elements"). It's wild and discordant, but quickly turns into a charming set of dances. We'll hear the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, in concert in Germany. Plus, Bruce Adolphe returns with the Piano Puzzler.

In 1938, composer Paul Hindemith fled Nazi Germany and later came to the U.S. One of his first projects here was to write a ballet based on themes by Carl Maria von Weber. Weber's tunes were charming but insubstantial. But Hindemith took that music of limited possibilities and turned it into something spectacular. His "Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber" is in today's show, performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

What happens when an orchestra known for a big, intense sound is launching a new organ in its home hall? They play a piece on which the organ' sound is as big as the orchestra's. Olivier Latry joins conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Saint-Saens' large-scale masterwork at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.