Performance Today®

In an era when the average life span was thirty-something, composer Jean-Philippe Rameau lived to the ripe old age of 80. He composed one of his last works, the opera "Les Paladins," at age 76. But don't call it stodgy or doddering. If anything, it was ahead of its time. On today's show, Nicholas McGegan leads the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in the orchestral suite from Rameau's "Les Paladins."

Many composers have disavowed their early works. Some have gone so far as to destroy everything they had written up to a certain time. Antonin Dvorak was one of them. He called his early years his "mad period," and even went so far as to take a knife to the manuscript of one work and scratch out the date on the title page. We'll hear that work, his third symphony, on today's show.

If you're a fan of the piano, you'll want to tune in to today's show, where the ivories will get a workout. We'll feature Stephen Hough playing Rachmaninoff with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Marc-Andre Hamelin going solo, playing music by Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov. And Jon Kimura Parker joins cellist Lynn Harrell for a Beethoven sonata.

For an actor, making it big in Hollywood is the epitome of success. But for a classical composer? Most consider the concert hall more of a barometer of success. Many composers have dabbled with composing music for films, however. On today's show, we'll hear music for the big screen, by Dmitri Shostakovich (pictured), Sergei Prokofiev, and Toru Takemitsu.

British conductor Sir Roger Norrington has been making waves in the music world for decades. He's passionate about getting orchestras to play his way. Norrington's current boss at the Stuttgart Radio Symphony said (with a wink and a grin) that if they had known what they were getting themselves into, they probably wouldn't have hired him. Luckily for them, they did. Today's show features music from Norrington's 75th birthday concert, last month in London.

Pianist Charles Wadsworth is the long-time Director for Chamber Music at the Spoleto Festival USA. He'll be retiring after this year's Festival. National broadcasts of chamber music from Spoleto are co-produced by South Carolina ETV and Radio, and WDAV Classical Public Radio. On today's show, Wadsworth and pianist Wendy Chen team up to play Dvorak's "Silent Woods."

For an actor, making it big in Hollywood is the epitome of success. But for a classical composer? Most consider the concert hall more of a barometer of success. Many composers have dabbled with composing music for films, however. On today's show, we'll hear music for the big screen, by Dmitri Shostakovich (pictured), Sergei Prokofiev, and Toru Takemitsu.

There are at least six million stories of suffering and death from the Holocaust. Many composers were among the victims. Their names might be unfamiliar to you: Marcel Tyberg, Leo Smit, Pavel Haas (pictured), Erwin Schulhoff, Viktor Ullmann. We'll always wonder what might have been, had they survived. Today, on Yom Hashoah, we'll feature music by victims of the Holocaust.

Whatever the enigma is behind Sir Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations" - and we've had theories posited on "Performance Today" - it's still magnificent music, a grand showcase for an outstanding orchestra. Peter Oundjian will lead one, the Toronto Symphony, at a concert in Toronto.