Performance Today®

The sound of the wind across the water, the play of light on the waves, the shifting, undulating nature of a watery world. It's all there in Claude Debussy's "La Mer," his dramatic depiction of the sea. It's the ultimate in water music, and today we'll feature a performance of Debussy's masterpiece by the Radio France Philharmonic.

Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts honored four individuals with lifetime achievement awards. Soprano Leontyne Price, conductor James Levine, composer Carlisle Floyd and arts administrator Richard Gaddes were honored for their work in opera. We'll feature performances by Price and Levine and hear some of Floyd's music on today's show.

On today's show we'll feature performances from cities that John McCain and Barack Obama have called home. We'll have performances from Phoenix, Chicago, and the city where both have lived and worked lately - Washington, D.C. And to prove that Performance Today is as neutral as the Swiss, we'll feature a performance by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

The ancients believed that the movement of the sun, moon, stars and planets was actually a form of music. They called it "musica universalis," or "music of the spheres." Today we'll prove them right by serving up some heavenly music about heavenly bodies - the stars, the moon and the planets.

When the Washington National Cathedral approached him to write a new work, Dominick Argento said no. He was grieving the death of his wife, and was done composing. They persisted, suggesting he write a memorial for his wife. The result was "Evensong - Of Love and Angels." Today we'll go to the premiere performance of Argento's loving tribute to his wife.

Sharp objects and sharp performances, in honor of Halloween. Josef Haydn was frustrated with a dull razor one morning, and offered to give his best string quartet for a decent shave. Someone produced one, and the "Razor" quartet was born. If that's not scary enough, we'll have music from Stephen Sondheim's "Sweeney Todd," the demon barber of Fleet Street.

Rachmaninoff was only 22 when he wrote his first symphony, but conductor Valery Gergiev believes it can hold its own against any of the composer's later, more famous works. He says the symphony is filled with "emotional power and beautiful lyricism." Gergiev leads the London Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony.

They didn't have organized fan clubs back in the 1800s, but if there had been one for Wagner, Anton Bruckner would have been the president. He idolized Wagner, and wrote his seventh symphony as a tribute to him. We'll hear the Adagio from Bruckner's seventh symphony, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Franz Welser-Most.

Pianist Andras Schiff joins the Budapest Festival Orchestra today for Dvorak's only piano concerto, with Ivan Fischer at the podium. It's a rare treat to hear a relatively unknown work by a famous composer, brought to life by one of the hottest pianists working today, in the composer's native country. You won't want to miss it.