Performance Today®

Impressionism was all the rage in France a hundred years ago, but it didn't really catch on in America. Today on the show we'll be exploring impressionism - from both sides of the Atlantic. You may not be familiar with American impressionist composer Charles Griffes. We'll hear two of his works plus music by those more famous impressionists, Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel.

Life dealt the Orion String Quartet a bunch of lemons earlier this year when one of their members was stranded in Chicago and unable to get to their concert in San Antonio. So the remaining three members of the quartet had to scramble to put together a performance without him. We'll hear that trio performance today.

Two giant turbines loom large on the stage. Black iron hooks and chains dangle from the ceiling. No, it's not a medieval torture chamber. It's a concert venue, although an admittedly unusual one. It's the Heimbach Power plant in Germany, site of the Spannungen Chamber Music Festival. We'll hear a Dvorak piano quintet from Heimbach today on PT.

What's your favorite Mozart work? Mozart himself addressed that question, and he picked his Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds as his best. We'll hear it performed today by pianist Jon Kimura Parker and members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, from a concert given in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Best to have your fire extinguisher at the ready. Today we'll feature an hour of both fiery and fire-inspired music in the second half of our show. From Stravinsky's Firebird ballet arranged for five pianos to the fiery "Devil's Trill" performed by violinist Joshua Bell, it'll be a scorcher on Performance Today.

The young Venezuelan conductor is known for his energetic, gravity-defying conducting style. He stomps, he leaps, he grunts. Today Gustavo Dudamel puts in another aerobic workout conducting the Radio France Philharmonic in Zoltan Kodaly's "Dances from Galanta." Join us for Performance Today, and get your heart rate up.

What's your favorite Mozart work? Mozart himself addressed that question, and he picked his Quintet in E-flat for Piano and Winds as his best. We'll hear it performed today by pianist Jon Kimura Parker and members of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, from a concert given in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

The last movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto has been described as "a polonaise for polar bears." See if you agree with one scholar's assessment of the Finnish composer's only violin concerto. We'll hear a complete performance by Lisa Batiashvili with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Alan Gilbert.

Last week in London, Gramophone magazine handed out its annual Gramophone awards for the best classical recordings of the year. In addition to the usual categories, they gave a special award for the best recording of the last 30 years. Tune in to Performance Today to find out who the surprise winner was.