Performance Today®

The six remaining Van Cliburn Competition contestants are giving their final performances this week. Today, we'll hear Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello in her semi-final round performance, playing music by Schumann and Scriabin. Our guest blogger, Gregory Allen, says of Vacatello, "She has insight, sensitivity, imagination, good taste, and - rarely found in competitions - a sense of integrity and humility about her role as an artist."

Composer Osvaldo Golijov's search for beauty in life and in his music is on-going. He likens it to "the laughter of the universe." On today's show, we'll hear the beauty of the color blue in Golijov's new work, "Azul." Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is among the soloists in this performance with Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Plus, we'll hear from one of the finalists at the Van Cliburn Competition, Bulgarian Evgeni Bozhanov.

Felix Mendelssohn was 20 years old, and on holiday in Scotland. Visiting a ruined castle, he wrote, "Everything around is broken and mouldering, and the bright sky shines in. I believe that today I've found the beginning of my Scottish Symphony." From the shards of that ruined place, Mendelssohn created a work of great wholeness and beauty. Today, we'll go to a concert in Berlin to hear the German Symphony Orchestra perform it.

The field of competitors in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is down to 12. We'll hear outstanding performances by two of them, Di Wu of China (pictured), and Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan. We'll be covering the results of the competition as they unfold. The semi-final round of the competition is underway, and the finals begin on June 3. PT host Fred Child will be emceeing the awards ceremony on June 7.

American composer Philip Glass has rarely if ever been accused of being a romantic. But in his evolution as a composer, it's only natural that he should explore the more emotional and passionate side of his music. On today's show we'll hear the world premiere performance of Glass' beautiful new violin sonata, featuring violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Jon Klibonoff. With this work, Bachmann appropriately labels Glass a romantic, perhaps for the first time.

Robert Schumann was psychotic and suicidal in the fall of 1853. His final work, his concerto for violin, dates from that time. Schumann's family and friends suppressed the work, and it wasn't performed until 1936. On today's show, violinist Christian Tetzlaff breathes life into this seldom-played work. Plus, we'll have another terrific performance from the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, Lukas Vondracek playing a Liszt Transcendental Etude.

The field of competitors in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is down to 29. We'll hear outstanding performances by two of them, Di Wu of China (pictured), and Nobuyuki Tsujii of Japan. We'll be covering the results of the competition as they unfold. The semi-final round of the competition begins tomorrow, and the finals on June 3. PT host Fred Child will be emceeing the awards ceremony on June 7.

In the end, a piano is nothing more than wood and strings and keys - not all that complex. But to truly bring it alive takes a collaboration of composer, soloist, orchestra, and conductor. In today's show, a musical dream team consisting of composer Frederic Chopin, pianist Emanuel Ax (pictured), the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and conductor Gustavo Dudamel. They'll perform Chopin's second piano concerto in Gothenburg, Sweden.

There are two faces to the Memorial Day holiday - honoring those who have died, and welcoming in the summer. In today's show, we have music for both, including excerpts from Brahms' (pictured) German Requiem from Boston, and Samuel Barber's lovely woodwind quintet, "Summer Music," performed by musicians from New York's Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.