Performance Today®

This past summer, the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio performed music by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů at the Smetana Litomyšl Festival in the Czech Republic. On today's show, we'll hear from that concert — a collection of short pieces called the Bergerettes written in 1939 by Bohuslav Martinů.

Covid travel restrictions kept Gao Hong from visiting her family in China, so she reminisced about her childhood to comfort herself and channeled that nostalgia into a new piece for Pipa and Bassoon. Join us today to hear Gao Hong play her new concerto, "Reminiscences of My Hometown," from a recent concert in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Forty years ago, conductor Giovanni Antonini helped launch a musical movement by playing works from 300 years ago as we think they might have been originally played. Antonini and his group, Il Giardino Armonico, are on the way in concert on today's episode of PT.

We're celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month here on PT, inviting some of our favorite Latin musicians to pick out some music to share. We recently spoke with violist Paul Laraia of the Catalyst Quartet - we'll hear his musical suggestions for Hispanic Heritage Month on today's show. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler!

Argentine bandoneon player JP Jofre remembers hearing music by Astor Piazzolla for the first time. He says, "It was classical, and it was tango, and it had the power of heavy metal. I knew this was what I wanted to do." Join us today to hear JP Jofre and friends play music by Astor Piazzolla from a concert at the Geneva Music Festival in Geneva, NY.

Concert halls across the country and around the world are once again filled with music and audiences! On today's show, we'll hear a recent performance of Leonard Bernstein's Divertimento from a concert in Belgium.

We're celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month here on PT, inviting some of our favorite Latin musicians to pick out some music to share. We recently spoke with violist Paul Laraia of the Catalyst Quartet - we'll hear his musical suggestions for Hispanic Heritage Month on today's show.

During the height of the pandemic, American composer Missy Mazzoli read about the history of medieval healing rituals, which was the inspiration behind a new piece of music. Join us today to hear Procession, a violin concerto by Missy Mazzoli.

The Manhattan skyline, the majesty of the Teton Mountains, and indigenous communities living in the American West. Those are some of the elements that inspired a musical reflection on our nation: American Scene by William Grant Still.