Music and fireworks have at least one thing in common. Both are fun to dabble in. But for true jaw-dropping effects, they're best left to the professionals. Both Igor Stravinsky and Claude Debussy wrote pieces that they called "Fireworks." We'll hear them in today's special 4th of July show. Plus, "Billy the Kid" by Aaron Copland, the city slicker from Brooklyn who somehow managed to capture the wide-open sounds of the American West.
Episode Playlist
Hour 1
Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and Stuart Duncan: Goat Rodeo
Stuart Duncan, fiddle, Chris Thile, mandolin, Yo-Yo Ma, cello, Edgar Meyer, bass
Leonard Bernstein: America, from West Side Story
The European Union Youth Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
Indiana University Auditorium, Bloomington, Indiana
Aaron Copland: An Outdoor Overture
The European Union Youth Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
Indiana University Auditorium, Bloomington, Indiana
Charles Ives: The Alcotts, from Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord)
Jeremy Denk, piano
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
The Piano Puzzler: This week's contestant is Mark Stoddard from Austin, Texas
Aaron Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody
The Dallas Wind Symphony, Donald McKinney, conductor
Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
Traditional (Arranged by Mark O'Connor): Amazing Grace and America the Beautiful
Mark O'Connor, violin
Kulas Hall, Cleveland
John Philip Sousa: The Gliding Girl Tango and Stars and Stripes Forever
The Dallas Wind Symphony, Kevin Sedatole, conductor
Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas
Hour 2
John Philip Sousa: Three Marches
The Nonpareil Wind Band, Timothy Foley, conductor
Igor Stravinsky: Fireworks, Op. 4
The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Jarvi, conductor
Grand Hall, Frankfurt, Germany
Claude Debussy: Feux d'Artifice (Fireworks), from Preludes: Book 2, No. 12
Alexander Lubyantsev, piano
International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow, Russia
Ricky Ian Gordon: Will There Really be a Morning?
Elizabeth Zharoff, soprano, Milos Repicky, piano
Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Studio, St. Paul
Steven Sametz: We Two Boys Together Clinging, from Not an End of Loving
Chanticleer
The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Aaron Copland: Lincoln Portrait
The United States Marine Band, Brian Stokes Mitchell, narrator, Col. Michael J. Colburn, conductor
NPR Studio 4A, Washington, D.C.
Aaron Copland: Scenes from Billy The Kid
The United States Marine Band, Maj. Jason K. Fettig, conductor
Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria, Virginia
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American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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