Performance Today®

For a musician, hearing is everything. If Beethoven was alive now, he could attest to that. It's tempting to speculate whether modern medicine could have helped Beethoven overcome his deafness. Doctors were unable to help Austrian pianist Till Fellner, who suffered a temporary hearing problem in 2005. The malady, a bad case of tinnitus, got better on its own. On today's show, Fellner plays one of Beethoven's piano sonatas in Washington, D.C.

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Carnival. Call it what you want, it's just one big party in many cities around the world. We'll celebrate the day by featuring performances of Briccialdi's "The Carnival of Venice" and Stravinsky's "Petrushka." Plus, we'll hear from Brazil's Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra, on tour in Florida.

We all hear with our ears, but there's a small minority of people who seem to hear with their eyes too. They see colors when they hear music. It's called synesthesia. Hour two of today's show is all about the phenomenon, featuring interviews with synesthetes and the scientists who have studied them, plus music by synesthetic composers.

Chilly St. Paul, Minnesota, hosted a hot event last month, the International Chamber Orchestra Festival. The city's resident group, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, was joined by several other chamber orchestras for a month-long festival. We'll hear music from one of those concerts on today's show. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs a Mozart divertimento and a sinfonia by C.P.E. Bach.

She's definitely not your aunt Ethel. Not stodgy, not conservative. Not set in her ways. She's actually a string quartet named ETHEL, whose members are dedicated to making exciting music that spans almost every genre. The members of ETHEL dropped by our studios recently for an interview and performance. We heard part one yesterday; today is part two.

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition comes around once every four years, just like the Olympics. Contestants prepare every bit as much as their athlete counterparts. And the stakes are just as high. The competition takes place this spring, but today we'll be hearing from one of the qualifying rounds. Pianist Spencer Myer performs selections from Debussy's Preludes in New York City.

Chilly St. Paul, Minnesota, hosted a hot event last month, the International Chamber Orchestra Festival. The city's resident group, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, was joined by several other chamber orchestras for a month-long festival. We'll hear music from one of those concerts on today's show. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs a Mozart divertimento and a sinfonia by C.P.E. Bach.

Arnold Schoenberg loved Brahms' first piano quartet, but hated how it was usually played. The pianist was always too loud, covering up the strings. He fixed the problem by rewriting the whole piece for symphony orchestra, and ditching the pesky piano altogether. We'll hear Schoenberg's arrangement today, played by Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Ivan Fischer conducts.

We all hear with our ears, but there's a small minority of people who seem to hear with their eyes too. They see colors when they hear music. It's called synesthesia. Hour one of today's show is all about the phenomenon, featuring interviews with synesthetes and the scientists who have studied them, plus music by synesthetic composers.