Performance Today®

Today, the country celebrates the inauguration of the nation's 44th president, Barack Obama. We'll have two hours of inauguration-related music, including early-American political songs from Baltimore, and a performance of Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," with the Atlanta Symphony and narrator Andrew Young. Plus, we'll feature several of the performers scheduled to play at today's inauguration ceremony.

Today's show honors Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. We'll take you to Atlanta to hear last week's King Celebration concert. Given every year at Morehouse College, King's alma mater, this year's concert features performances by the Atlanta Symphony with conductor Robert Spano, and the combined choirs of Spelman and Morehouse colleges.

Astor Piazzolla: Adagio from Suite for Oboe and String Orchestra Oboist Andres Spiller with Camerata Bariloche and conductor Fernando Hasaj

For as long as humans have been around, we've had strong ties to our land. And we've been writing music about it, too. Today's show features an hour of Spanish music, followed by an hour of performances from Atlanta, Georgia. They're two very different worlds, with unique and exciting musical landscapes.

London's Philharmonia Orchestra started its life as a studio orchestra, only occasionally giving live concerts. Over the years, they've transformed into a more typical orchestra, giving up studio headphones in favor of tuxes and gowns. We'll hear them twice today, performing Brahms' Fourth Symphony, and the final two movements of Schubert's Ninth Symphony ("The Great").

German composer Max Bruch had a soft spot in his heart for the music of Scotland. He once said his best work was inspired by folk music. We'll hear one of his most popular works, the "Scottish Fantasy," for violin and orchestra. Violinist Michael Ludwig joins the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and conductor JoAnn Falletta, in concert in Norfolk, Virginia.

On a trip to Rome, Tchaikovsky's hotel was next door to a cavalry barracks. Every morning, the company bugler would wake everyone up, including Tchaikovsky, with a bugle call. That musical alarm clock found its way into his "Italian Capriccio," along with songs from street vendors, and lots of other local color. Today, the Hungarian Symphony performs the "Italian Capriccio" in Budapest.

Today, we'll feature performances from two outstanding Russian pianists - Mikhail Pletnev and Nikolai Lugansky. Pletnev performs the Grieg concerto with the Rotterdam Philharmonic at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and Lugansky performs the Schumann concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony in Berlin. If you're a fan of great piano music, you won't want to miss today's show.

It was an unlikely chain of events that brought Igor Stravinsky and "The Firebird" together. The Ballet Russes first considered four other composers before turning, in desperation, to the young, unknown Stravinsky. The result was a masterpiece, and Stravinsky became an overnight star. Today we'll hear the Netherlands Symphony perform a suite from Stravinsky's ballet.