Performance Today®

This time of year, the word "passion" takes on a special meaning. It's not about love or desire. It's about suffering and death. Today, in observance of Good Friday, we'll feature passion narratives by two very different composers: Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and Osvaldo Golijov's St. Mark Passion. They offer two very different takes on the same story, written three centuries apart.

Handel's great oratorio, "Messiah," is mostly thought of as a Christmas piece. But it was written for, and had its premiere in, the season of Easter. On today's show, we'll feature music from a performance of "Messiah" given just last week in Austin, Texas. Craig Hella Johnson leads the voices of Conspirare and the instrumentalists of the Victoria Bach Festival Baroque Band.

In 1867, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen wrote a play about a young man who spends his life avoiding responsibility. The play features amorous milkmaids, a runaway bride, a cave full of trolls, and a sojourn in the deserts of Egypt. The drama never became one of Ibsen's biggest hits, but the music that Edvard Grieg wrote for it did. On today's PT, Grieg's "Peer Gynt" suites 1 and 2, performed by the North German Radio Philharmonic.

Violinist Nikolaj Znaider says there's nothing harder than playing Mozart. Embodying that perfection that sprang from Mozart's mind and heart and fingers is "an extraordinary task." Today, Znaider proves that he's up to the job. We'll hear him perform Mozart's fifth violin concerto with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on tour in Omaha, Nebraska.

Gabriel Faure was a good ol' boy from the south. The south of France, that is. But the description fits. Charming, easy-going, pleasure-loving. Liked to smoke and drink. Not the sort you might think to be a church musician, and to compose one of our loveliest sacred works. But he did both. On today's show, to mark the Easter season, we'll feature a performance of Faure's beautiful Requiem.

One of the great questions of life is what, if anything, comes after it. Humans from the beginning of history have wrestled with the question of what happens to us when we die. Artists are no exception. On today's show, we'll hear composer Richard Strauss' view. In his tone poem, "Death and Transfiguration," Strauss paints the picture of a man's life, death, and ultimate transcendence into a life beyond.

Out of death, comes life. That's both a philosophical statement, and a practical one too. When the earth is scorched by fire, some of the first things to regenerate are the wild flowers. On today's show, Michael Torke's piece from 2005 called, "After the Forest Fire." And after that, the wild flowers spring up. The Cincinnati Symphony plays "What the Wild Flowers Tell Me," by Gustav Mahler.

One of the great questions of life is what, if anything, comes after it. Humans from the beginning of history have wrestled with the question of what happens to us when we die. Artists are no exception. On today's show, we'll hear composer Richard Strauss' view. In his tone poem, "Death and Transfiguration," Strauss paints the picture of a man's life, death, and ultimate transcendence into a life beyond.

Instruments like this Stradivarius are among the most expensive in the world. Some of them are worth millions. But some musicians are choosing to alter their instruments with tattoos and piercings. Sound crazy? Some think so. But others insist they're just personalizing what they consider an extension of their own bodies - their instruments. Tune in to today's show for the full story. Plus, we'll hear our very own PT poem, written for us by poet C.K. Williams.