Performance Today®

It was an experiment in words and music, from a concert this summer by the Miro Quartet and American poet Matthea Harvey. She chose poems to go with each movement of Beethoven's Quartet No. 16, and read her work before each movement. The Miro Quartet gave a visceral, energetic performance, framed by Harvey's words. We'll hear it exactly as it happened.

The PT debut of a young and talented (and irreverent) chamber orchestra from Boston that calls itself "A Far Cry." They'll play Benjamin Britten's playful "Simple Symphony." And a rarely-played gem: the Sextet in C by Erno Dohnanyi. Fred explains *why* it's so rarely played (there's a good reason!), and we'll hear an exemplary performance by members of the Nash Ensemble, in concert in Boston.

Celebratory classics inspired by fireworks and sparklers for the holiday weekend! Music by Stravinsky, Handel, and Moritz Moszkowski. And our 21st century piece this Friday is the world premiere of "prairyerth" (pronounced like "Prairie Earth") by Kansas native Robert Johnson. (btw, that's the correct spelling, with no capital letter) Paavo Jarvi conducts the Cincinnati Symphony in this piece evocative of the wide-open spaces of the American prairie.

Celebratory classics inspired by fireworks and sparklers for the holiday weekend! Music by Stravinsky, Handel, and Moritz Moszkowski. And our 21st century piece this Friday is the world premiere of "prairyerth" (pronounced like "Prairie Earth") by Kansas native Robert Johnson. (btw, that's the correct spelling, with no capital letter) Paavo Jarvi conducts the Cincinnati Symphony in this piece evocative of the wide-open spaces of the American prairie.

19th century sugar with a little 20th century spice makes for a tasty serving of orchestral music at one of the world's great concert halls, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Paul Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber." David Robertson leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in a pulsating performance. Domenico Scarlatti wrote 550 sonatas, almost all for harpsichord. We'll hear a set of three played in concert on anything BUT the harpsichord: Christian Zacharias at the piano, Emmanuel Ceysson on the harp, and Lidia Kaminska on the...accordion.

Today's show begins in Amsterdam. Simon Rattle leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Schumann's fourth symphony. Then we'll return to our St. Paul studios, where Bruce Adolphe joins host Fred Child for another "Piano Puzzler." In hour two, Ivan Fischer leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Arnold Schoenberg's arrangement of Brahms' first piano quartet in Amsterdam.

The world of popular culture is full of classical music references. The famous ad campaign, "beef - it's what's for dinner," featured music from Aaron Copland's ballet, "Rodeo." And the finale of Saint-Saens' (pictured) third symphony found its way into a movie about a talking pig, "Babe." On today's show, we'll hear the symphony in its entirety, played by Charles Dutoit and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with organist Joanne Pearce Martin.

The Miro String Quartet and poet Matthea Harvey appeared together at this year's White Pine Festival in Stillwater, Minnesota as part of the Poetry Radio Project. The music was Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 5. Harvey's poem, interwoven with the music, brought out images of water and glass, and the remoteness of the natural world. On today's show, we'll hear this memorable performance of words and music.

The Aspen Music Festival is the country's largest summer festival. Aspen opened this week, and runs through late August, featuring many of the top performers in the world. As the festival continues, we'll be bringing you live performances throughout the summer. On today's show, we'll revisit past Aspen concerts by pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, violinist Julia Fischer, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra.