Performance Today®

In Ravel's Bolero, the lead snare drummer plays a simple pattern 168 times in a row, gradually getting louder for 16 minutes. It's a study in deep concentration, and percussionist David Corkhill has it mastered. From a concert two weeks ago at the Royal Albert Hall in London, rock-solid David Corkhill and the rest of the Philharmonia Orchestra give a riveting performance of Bolero.

Karen Geoghegan was 19 years old, and bored. So she signed up to take part in "Classical Star," a TV talent show for young classical musicians in England. As a bassoonist, her expectations were low...but to her surprise she made the final round, and came in second during a live national TV broadcast. She's become something of a celebrity in the UK, she has a record contract, and three weeks ago made her debut at the big summer music festival in London, the Proms. We'll hear the now 21 year-old Karen Geoghegan give a knockout performance of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Every Friday, Performance Today features 21st century music. This week: "Lunar Reflections" by 35 year-old Canadian composer Heather Schmidt. It's not in five movements, Schmidt says it's in five "moons." From the delicate beauty of a "February Snow Moon" to the clangorous energy of a "July Thunder Moon." We'll hear the world premiere, from a concert in Toronto by the Gryphon Trio.

The second movement is some of the most calming, comforting music ever written, and the third movement is a raucous party scene. It's Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, the "Emperor" Concerto. Arnaldo Cohen at the piano, Michael Palmer conducting the Bellingham Festival Orchestra, at the Bellingham Festival of Music, in Washington state. Plus listener comments and calls about 21st century music, about "Bravo Man," and about an *alleged* Tartini Adagio.

Every week on our Piano Puzzler, Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We get one of our listeners on the phone to guess the tune, and the composer Bruce is mimicking. Even if you're not the one calling this week, play along! See if YOU can guess the tune and the composer, in our Piano Puzzler.

Susanna Malkki was the only woman in her conducting class in Helsinki ten years ago, but she doesn't want to talk about being a female conductor. Malkki says "If I forget about it then others may forget about it too." Malkki led the BBC Symphony Orchestra last month at the BBC Proms in London, in a lean and rhythmically-charged performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4.

Karen Geoghegan was 19 years old, and bored. So she signed up to take part in "Classical Star," a TV talent show for young classical musicians in England. As a bassoonist, her expectations were low...but to her surprise she made the final round, and came in second during a live national TV broadcast. She's become something of a celebrity in the UK, she has a record contract, and three weeks ago made her debut at the big summer music festival in London, the Proms. We'll hear the now 21 year-old Karen Geoghegan give a knockout performance of Mozart's Bassoon Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

It could be "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the style of Claude Debussy. Or "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in the style of Beethoven. Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe takes a familiar tune and re-writes it in the style of a classical composer. See if you can guess the hidden tune, and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating.

Alan Fletcher is President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival, and he's a composer. He used to think novelists were silly when they would say "my characters speak to me." But then Fletcher noticed that the concerto he was working on seemed to take on a life of its own, and he felt himself observing and even assisting the piece, rather than merely composing it. This week's 21st century work is the Clarinet Concerto by Alan Fletcher, from a concert at the 2009 Aspen Music Festival and School.