Performance Today®

What is Beethoven's greatest symphony? Well, it's a matter of taste, but many claim that the Seventh is the one that has it all. The deepest sadness and the most exultant sense of triumph. From Barbican Hall in London, we'll hear it performed by Jiri Belohlavek and the BBC Symphony.

The world' foremost piano trio will play its final concerts this summer. But they'e spent April crossing North America, playing 18 concerts in 20 days. We'll have an audio dispatch from the road, as well as some Dvorak from their final concert in Boston.

Our first hour features music inspired by the water, starting with Smetana's "The Moldau," performed by the Russian National Orchestra in Florida. We'll also have flowing works from Ravel, Michael Daugherty and Dana Wilson. And Rebel plays a Handel "Water Music" Suite in Virginia.

In honor of the (approximate) anniversary of the birth of the Bard, violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Rohan de Silva team up for music that Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote for a production of "Much Ado About Nothing." And Claus Peter Flor leads the Dallas Symphony in music from Prokofiev's ballet, "Romeo and Juliet," in Dallas.

Our second hour features music inspired by the water, starting with Smetana's "The Moldau," performed by the Russian National Orchestra in Florida. We'll also have flowing works from Ravel, Michael Daugherty and Dana Wilson. And Rebel plays a Handel "Water Music" Suite in Virginia.

Korngold was heir to the tradition of the great Viennese composers, but he fled the Nazis and landed in Hollywood. His film scores not only won Oscars, but remain influential today (John Williams is a disciple). However, his lone violin concerto may be his masterpiece, a sprawling work of cinematic sweep. We'll go to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to hear Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider play it with conductor Valery Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

One of Sir Edward Elgar's best friends was a bulldog named Dan. And he shows up in all sorts of guises in the composer's work. You can listen for the hidden pooch as JoAnn Falletta conducts the Buffalo Philharmonic in the "In the South" Overture at Buffalo's Kleinhans Hall.

We'll go to the Czech city of Prague to hear an evocative performance of Ottorino Respighi's "The Pines of Rome" by conductor Marcello Rota and the Czech National Symphony. And we'll stay in Prague, where two Italians - violinist Riccardo Minasi and harpsichordist Giulia Nuti - play a violin sonata by J.S. Bach.

Mitsuko Uchida will talk about Mozart's 19th Piano Concerto before serving as both soloist and conductor for a performance with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall.