Performance Today®

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.

Poet Laure-Anne Bosselaar hates Mozart, but loves Beethoven. She grew up without classical music in her life, and discovered him at age 17, hearing his fifth symphony for the first time. On today's show, Bosselaar reads her poem, "The Pleasures of Hating." Plus, we'll hear that famous fifth symphony of Beethoven's, performed by the Dallas Symphony and conductor Jaap van Zweden.

William Shakespeare's play about two young, star-crossed lovers has provided the inspiration for some great music. On today's show, we'll hear the lush romanticism of Tchaikovsky's "Romeo and Juliet" overture, and Prokofiev's ballet suites, with their combination of power and intimacy. Vladimir Spivakov leads the National Philharmonic of Russia, in concert at the Worcester Music Festival.

Franz Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" began its life as a song. Schubert later turned that song into a string quartet, and Gustav Mahler subsequently arranged it for string orchestra. On today's show, violinist Joshua Bell joins the violin section of the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and leads them in a performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden," from California's Festival del Sole.

On today's show, we wrap up our coverage of the 2009 Van Cliburn Piano Competition. We'll feature silver medalist Yeol Eum Son (pictured) performing Chopin's second piano concerto in the final round of the competition. Plus, our weekly 21st century music segment features two Van Cliburn performances, by gold medalist Haochen Zhang, and by finalist and audience favorite Mariangela Vacatello.

Franz Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" began its life as a song. Schubert later turned that song into a string quartet, and Gustav Mahler subsequently arranged it for string orchestra. On today's show, violinist Joshua Bell joins the violin section of the UBS Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, and leads them in a performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden," from California's Festival del Sole.

This past Sunday, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition concluded with a rare tie for first place. On Monday's show, we featured one of the gold medalists, Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan. On today's show, we'll hear the other, Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang. The youngest competitor in the field, Zhang gave a mature, electrifying performance of Prokofiev's second piano concerto.