Performance Today®

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.

The legendary piano trio, the Beaux Arts Trio, is on its final U.S. tour. Violinist Daniel Hope is keeping an audio diary, from which we'll hear a few entries. And we'll listen to the group play a Schubert piano trio at their last concert in Boston.

We'll go to Oslo, Norway, to hear Gerhard Oppitz perform music from Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with conductor Marek Janowski and the Oslo Philharmonic. Then 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.

One of the world's great orchestras offers a fascinating interpretation of Beethoven's penultimate symphony. Mariss Jansons leads the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in concert at their home hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

When Moliere's comedy, "The Bourgeois Gentleman," premiered in 1670, Jean-Baptiste Lully not only wrote the music... he acted in it, too. Almost two-and-a-half centuries later, Lully pulled another cameo when some of his themes for that production showed up in a suite by Richard Strauss inspired by the same play. We'll head to Hanover, Germany, to hear Eiji Oue conduct the North German Radio Philharmonic.

You most often find flutist Emmanuel Pahud in front of an orchestra... or leading the flute section of the Berlin Philharmonic. Pianist Yefim Bronfman is usually performing a concerto with an orchestra or playing a solo recital in one of the world's great concert halls. Today, they team up to play an intimate and involving Brahms sonata at Boston's Jordan Hall.

We're broadcasting from Los Angeles today, kicking off a week that will feature a performance a day by the L.A. Philharmonic, as well as conversations with music director Esa-Pekka Salonen and some of the orchestra's musicians. Today, Salonen leads them in Haydn's "Bear" Symphony and a piece by Alexander Mossolov at Disney Hall.