Performance Today®

Clara Schumann refused to publish her husband Robert's one and only violin concerto because she thought it was the music of a mad man. Just a year after he wrote it, Schumann was institutionalized in a sanitarium. But violinist Renaud Capucon hears great pain, beauty and triumph in the music. He'll talk about this lonely concerto before we hear him perform it in Berlin with Hans Graf and the German Symphony Orchestra, as our week of violin concertos continues.

We'll spend much of today's show at Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. First, we'll hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic's concert master, Martin Chalifour, perform Erich Korngold's Violin Concerto with Jonathan Nott and the orchestra. Then Paavo Jarvi leads the L.A. Philharmonic in Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" and the second half of his Second Symphony.

Since their Proms debut in London last summer, Gustavo Dudamel and Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra have been the talk of the classical music world. There's so much fire, technical skill and interpretive flair in their performances that it's hard to believe that they're a youth orchestra. Hear what the buzz is about when they perform one of Beethoven's most emotion-packed symphonies in Boston.

If you love the sound of a solo violin, then this is the week for you to listen to PT. All week, we'll be presenting recent concert performances of great violin concertos, starting with one by the legendary virtuoso and showman, Niccolo Paganini. At a concert in Hamburg, Germany, Hungarian violinist Kristof Barati offers a fiery interpretation of Paganini's Second with Alexander Mickelthwate and the North German Radio Philharmonic.

Rachmaninoff was a pianist's pianist. And the pieces he composed can be spectacular showcases for a pianist's abilities. Among Rachmaninoff's four piano concertos, the second and third are heard fairly frequently. Far more rare is the fourth, but Stephen Hough tackles it at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas.

They don't hand out those MacArthur "genius grants" to just anyone. Pianist Stephen Hough is the rare recipient who's more interpreter than creator. But what interpretations they are. He pinch-hit for an ailing pianist on a Philadelphia Orchestra concert, and delivered a thrilling performance of this Rachmaninoff Rhapsody at the Kimmel Center.

The Prague Chamber Philharmonic crosses the border to perform one of the great violin concertos in Zilina, Slovakia. Handling the soloing duties is the talented 29-year-old Hungarian violinist, Barnabas Kelemen, who is currently playing one of the world's great violins, a 1742 Guarneri.

A long-lost gem from Haydn's pen was found in a Prague museum in 1961, and has been a staple of the repertoire for cello soloists ever since. Alban Gerhardt gives it a fiery performance at Los Angeles' Disney Hall, one that pulses with energy and excitement.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2 Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy