Performance Today®

Mitsuko Uchida is one of the finest pianists in the world, especially known for the emotional depth of her performances. She could be working non-stop, but chooses to play less than she could, to leave space for relaxation and time with friends. Perhaps, it's that search for balance in her life that allows her to achieve such depth and breadth of emotion in her music. Today, we'll hear her in a performance of Beethoven's third piano concerto, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The Aspen Music Festival is the country's largest summer festival. Aspen opens today, 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.

Leaving school can be a bit like leaving the womb. Getting out takes a lot of hard work. Nothing is safe or certain any more, but the possibilities are endless. This week, we're featuring some of the top university and conservatory students in their student recitals. Also, we'll hear from two training orchestras for young musicians: the European Union Baroque Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute Orchestra (pictured).

All this week on Performance Today, we're featuring terrific performances by some of the top university and conservatory music students in the country. They're the next generation of classical musicians, and they've been studying and practicing for years for the big event, their senior recitals. On today's show, we'll feature students from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Texas at Austin.

Most classical music concerts take place inside the concert hall, essentially a glorified box. Many of those boxes are rightly revered and cherished for their history, architecture, and acoustics. But today, we'll go outside the box. The first hour of today's show features performances from unusual locations, including a barge, a night club, and a former power plant (the Heimbach hydroelectric plant, pictured).

Sunday is Father's Day, and we're celebrating the day. Today's show features stories of fatherhood and the classical music world. We'll hear the new sitar concerto by Ravi Shankar (pictured), written for his daughter Anoushka. Pianist Lang Lang shares the stage with his dad, who plays the Chinese erhu. And we'll hear from father and son Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane, on how music influenced their relationship.

Sunday is Father's Day, and we're celebrating a few days early. Today's show features stories of fatherhood and the classical music world. We'll hear the new sitar concerto by Ravi Shankar (pictured), written for his daughter Anoushka. Pianist Lang Lang shares the stage with his dad, who plays the Chinese erhu. And we'll hear from father and son Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane, on how music influenced their relationship.

After we hear William Walton's musical evocation of this etching by Thomas Rowlandson, Fred Child sits down in our Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Music Studio for a chat with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder. He's a lover of the live experience: Almost all of his recordings are from concerts. But he'll break with form by playing Schubert and Johann Strauss in the studio. Then we'll go to Amsterdam to hear him perform music from Brahms' Second Piano Concerto.

When violinist Pinchas Zukerman wanted to start a group of traveling chamber musicians, he called it, not so surprisingly, the Zukerman ChamberPlayers. Trading on the name brand recognition, the group is also making a name for itself artistically. On today's show, we'll hear them perform a Mozart string quintet in New York City.