Performance Today®

Lang Lang isn't the only young Chinese pianist causing an international stir. Yundi Li is also a flamboyant, exciting player. We'll go to Los Angeles to catch him playing a fantastic showcase for his talents -- Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1--with Leonard Slatkin and the L.A. Philharmonic.

We'll go to London's Royal Albert Hall to hear a BBC Proms performance of Antonin Dvorak's sumptuous Sixth Symphony. Yakov Kreizberg leads the Netherlands Philharmonic. Also from the Proms: Sibelius'"Night Ride and Sunrise" from Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony, and the King's Singers with music of Orlando di Lasso.

If you thought cowboys couldn't dance, you'd be wrong. Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera wrote a ballet called "Estancia" about the cowboys of South America, including a foot-stomping final dance. We'll hear a suite from that ballet. Conductor David Zinman led the Aspen Chamber Symphony in a performance of the Estancia Suite last month at the Aspen Music Festival.

Point/counterpoint: Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg says you don't have to change the notes to improvise -- interpretation is a form of improv. Pianist Robert Levin disagrees. We'll consider the question by comparing VERY different versions of the Bach Goldberg Variations. AND... some composers have written pieces intended to sound like improv, but... you have to play the notes they wrote. Schubert "Impromptus," and Poulenc "Improvisations."

Every time pianist Robert Levin plays a concerto by Mozart or Beethoven, he improvises the cadenzas. And even improvises along with the orchestra during their passages. He says Mozart and Beethoven would have done the same, and argues that you MUST improvise in these works to be in the true spirit of the music. Levin joins host Fred Child for some lively conversation and demonstration (improvising three wildly different versions of the same Beethoven cadenza), and we'll hear him improvise his way through Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in concert in Copenhagen.

It used to be that all classical musicians could improvise. That was just part of the job. Over the years, it's become something of a lost art among performers. With one notable exception. The tradition of improvisation has never died out among organists. Why? Michael Barone, host of "Pipedreams," and organist Cameron Carpenter both comment on that question. Carpenter also demonstrates his improvisational skill in concert. Join us as we continue our look at improvisation in classical music.

Point/counterpoint: Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg says you don't have to change the notes to improvise -- interpretation is a form of improv. Pianist Robert Levin disagrees. We'll consider the question by comparing VERY different versions of the Bach Goldberg Variations: Glenn Gould vs. Simone Dinnerstein. AND... some composers have written pieces intended to sound like improv, but... you have to play the notes they wrote. Schubert "Impromptus," and Poulenc "Improvisations."

A pianist who can't HELP improvising: Gabriela Montero in the PT studios. She takes a call from a PT listener, who sings a tune. Montero improvises around it on the spot. Plus, we'll have an interview with pianist Lang Lang from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

We're going to spend part of each day this week exploring improvisation in classical music. It used to be a vital part of every musician's skill set. What changed and why? We'll have conversations with a pair of experts on baroque improvisation - guitarist Rolf Lislevand and recorder virtuoso Matthias Maute - and listen to them play music of Vivaldi and Johann Kapsberger.