Music for improvisation

We often hear Samuel Barber's Adagio as a standalone piece for string orchestra, but it began as the slow movement of a string quartet. Alone, the Adagio feels so simple, so profound, and somehow much more poignant in the context of the entire quartet. Hear the Viano String Quartet perform Barber's Adagio at a concert presented by Music@Menlo in Menlo Park, California.

In Ukrainian, the word "dumka" means "thought" or “notion." In music, a dumka is a somewhat dreamlike dance that often revisits a bittersweet reflection on the sadness of life. Today, we’ll hear English composer Rebecca Clarke’s ‘Dumka,’ from a concert presented by the Fabian Concert Series in Macon, Georgia.

Today, we’re featuring one of our 2025 Young Artists in Residence: double-bassist Nina Bernat. In today's show, Nina joins Fred Child for music and conversation at our studio in Saint Paul.

As talented young kids, siblings Geneva Lewis and Nathan Lewis were part of a successful family trio. They’re all grown up now, each at the top of their careers, and they still find time to make music together. In today’s episode, Geneva and Nathan Lewis perform a duet by Edward Elgar at a concert in Athens, Georgia.

In 1940, Eleanor Roosevelt was introduced to Symphony No. 3 by African American composer Florence Price; the First Lady loved it and praised it enthusiastically in her daily newspaper column. On today’s show, we’ll take you to a recent concert in St. Louis for a performance of Price’s Symphony No. 3.

When composer and pianist Franz Liszt was a young man, he was fascinated with death. He went to hospitals to observe people who were sick or dying. He went to prisons to meet people who had been condemned to die. On today’s show, we’ll hear Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, The Dance of Death, a piece based on the Dies Irae, a chant from the Catholic Mass for the Dead.

Invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s, the saxophone has long been seen as an outsider in classical music. But Timothy McAllister is on a mission to change that. On today’s show, Timothy McAllister performs a saxophone classic: Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto.

On today's show, we explore music by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans. Join us at a concert in Wismar, Germany, to hear a performance of Bosmans's String Quartet, a piece from a time when in-home concerts were a matter of necessity for artists whose work had to be kept undercover.

The final symphony by Jean Sibelius unfolds over twenty-one minutes, evolving from a quiet opening to a warm, life-affirming ending—it's one unbroken weightless stream. Join us at a concert in Zurich for the Symphony No. 7 by Jean Sibelius.

On Friday, Aug. 29, 2025, Minnesota Public Radio’s annual MPR Day took place at Dan Patch Park at the Minnesota State Fair. The day included music by a brass quintet featuring members of the Minnesota Orchestra.