Performance Today®

Early Friday morning, legendary cellist, conductor and human rights advocate Mstislav Rostropovich died at the age of 80 in a Moscow hospital. We're going to spend much of today's show discussing his music and his legacy. We'll have reminiscences from two former proteges -- Emerson String Quartet cellist David Finckel and conductor Hugh Wolff -- as well as sections of an interview with Rostropovich himself. And we'll hear an inspirational performance by Rostropovich of a cello concerto by Nikolai Miaskovsky.

Claude Debussy: Bela Fleck, banjo "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum" from "Children's Corner"

Franz Schubert: Scherzo: Presto from String Quintet in C Major, D. 956 The Miro String Quartet with cellist Matt Haimovitz

Anton Bruckner: "Vexhilla Regis" from "Motets" Corydon Singers

Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo No. 1 in E-flat Major Pianist Emanuel Ax

Carl Nielsen: Overture to "Maskarade" The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra with conductor Herbert Blomstedt

Giovanni Palestrina: Kyrie from the "Pope Marcellus Mass" The Choir of New College Oxford with conductor Edward Higginbottom

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Etude Tableaux, Nos. 2 and 5 Pianist Alexander Kobrin

Christoph Wilibald Gluck: Pantomime and Ballet from "Orpheus and Eurydice" The San Francisco Opera Orchestra with conductor Donald Runnicles