Performance Today®

Sergei Rachmaninoff was a young unknown when he met his hero, composer Peter Tchaikovsky, who died only a month later. The very night Rachmaninoff got the news, he began writing a piece in honor of Tchaikovsky. On today's show, we'll hear members of the Seattle Chamber Music Society play the Trio élégiaque No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Ethiopian-Hungarian violinist Samuel Nebyu played at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland…and his entire concert was music by composers of African descent. On today’s show, we’ll revisit that special concert to hear Nebyu play "Deep River” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

In the Roaring 20s, composer William Walton and poet Edith Sitwell created a playful work called 'Façade: An Entertainment.' And according to conductor JoAnn Falletta, the title says it all. She says, "It's not something to worry about. It's something to just be charmed by." Hear highlights from Façade on today's episode of Performance Today.

Violinist James Ehnes says that the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is one of his favorite places on earth. In an essay for Strings magazine, Ehnes wrote that the GTMF is a place "...where the physical beauty is beyond description, and where the quality of music-making defies rational explanation." On today's show, we'll hear James Ehnes and the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra play the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Composer Brian Nabors feels as though the universe is connected through a unified pulse. In 2019, he composed a piece with examples of that unwavering pulse set in different life scenarios, and it's up to you to decide for yourself what those settings are. On today's show, we'll hear Pulse by Brian Nabors from a concert presented by the National Philharmonic Institute and Festival.

In the Schumann Quartet, three members of the group are siblings from a family named Schumann, and their father's name was Robert Schumann...but no relation to the famous composer. We'll sort out the names and hear the Schumann Quartet play Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 at a concert presented by the University of Georgia. Plus, learn how fortunate we are to hear an early work by Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutosławski.

American composer Julia Perry wrote well over a hundred pieces of music, but just a handful are published. Why is that the case? We've got the story and an all-too-rare highlight from Perry's available music on this episode of Performance Today.

Composer Joaquín Turina wrote a musical portrait, imagining what went through the mind of a Spanish bullfighter right before stepping into the ring—the prayers one might say before facing mortal danger. We'll hear "La oración del torero" (The Bullfighter's Prayer) by Joaquín Turina on this episode of Performance Today.

In the Schumann Quartet, three members of the group are siblings from a family named Schumann, and their father's name was Robert Schumann...but no relation to the famous composer. We'll sort out the names and hear the Schumann Quartet play Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 at a concert presented by the University of Georgia. Plus, learn how fortunate we are to hear an early work by Polish composer and conductor Witold Lutosławski.