Performance Today®

For an actor, making it big in Hollywood is the epitome of success. But for a classical composer? Most consider the concert hall more of a barometer of success. Many composers have dabbled with composing music for films, however. On today's show, we'll hear music for the big screen, by Dmitri Shostakovich (pictured), Sergei Prokofiev, and Toru Takemitsu.

British conductor Sir Roger Norrington has been making waves in the music world for decades. He's passionate about getting orchestras to play his way. Norrington's current boss at the Stuttgart Radio Symphony said (with a wink and a grin) that if they had known what they were getting themselves into, they probably wouldn't have hired him. Luckily for them, they did. Today's show features music from Norrington's 75th birthday concert, last month in London.

Pianist Charles Wadsworth is the long-time Director for Chamber Music at the Spoleto Festival USA. He'll be retiring after this year's Festival. National broadcasts of chamber music from Spoleto are co-produced by South Carolina ETV and Radio, and WDAV Classical Public Radio. On today's show, Wadsworth and pianist Wendy Chen team up to play Dvorak's "Silent Woods."

For an actor, making it big in Hollywood is the epitome of success. But for a classical composer? Most consider the concert hall more of a barometer of success. Many composers have dabbled with composing music for films, however. On today's show, we'll hear music for the big screen, by Dmitri Shostakovich (pictured), Sergei Prokofiev, and Toru Takemitsu.

There are at least six million stories of suffering and death from the Holocaust. Many composers were among the victims. Their names might be unfamiliar to you: Marcel Tyberg, Leo Smit, Pavel Haas (pictured), Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann. We'll always wonder what might have been, had they survived. Today, on Yom Hashoah, we'll feature music by victims of the Holocaust.

Whatever the enigma is behind Sir Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations" - and we've had theories posited on "Performance Today" - it's still magnificent music, a grand showcase for an outstanding orchestra. Peter Oundjian will lead one, the Toronto Symphony, at a concert in Toronto.

All this week on Performance Today, we've been featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic and outgoing music director Esa-Pekka Salonen. Salonen gives up the podium at the end of this week. He's made a big impact on the orchestra and the city of Los Angeles in his 17-year tenure there. On today's show, Salonen leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in music by Sibelius and Mussorgsky.

Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen steps down from his post as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week. And today, we'll wrap up our week-long look at Salonen and his tenure at Los Angeles. On today's show, he leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," in concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (pictured).

According to conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, there are "no simple solutions" to playing Beethoven. No corners to cut, no easy way out of the dilemmas posed by his music. On today's show, Salonen, violinist Viktoria Mullova, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic do it the hard way, and the right way, in their performance of the Beethoven violin concerto.