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.

This weekend, PT has two concerts from two bands from Los Angeles. First, Jeffrey Kahane leads The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a symphony by Mendelssohn. Then, Vassily Sinaisky leads The Los Angeles Philharmonic in Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances".

Despite living in London, pianist Murray Perahia hadn't played at the BBC Proms for twenty years. Earlier this month that absence came to an end, and Perahia gave a long-awaited performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 with the Chicago Symphony. The tickets were a hot commodity, but you can hear the performance today on PT.