Performance Today®

The great young American pianist Jonathan Biss joins Fred in our studio to play, and talk about, music by Franz Schubert. For Biss, Schubert's music is infused with "joyful sadness and tragic joy," these two emotional poles interweave seamlessly. Jonathan Biss plays the opening movement from Schubert's A-Major Sonata. And also introduces us to quietly quirky works by his favorite living composer: Gyorgy Kurtag.

When Sergei Rachmaninoff's First Symphony premiered in 1897, the critics were ruthless. One of the kinder, gentler reviews compared the work to the seven plagues of Egypt. Rachmaninoff fell into an emotional abyss, and didn't compose anything for several years. Nowadays, the symphony is an audience favorite. We'll hear a blistering performance of Rachmaninoff's First Symphony, from London's BBC Proms. Gennadi Rozhdestvensky conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Last night, Gustavo Dudamel made his debut as the new music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Host Fred Child was there, and will share his experience of the big event. We'll hear excerpts from Mahler's first symphony from the concert. Plus, our weekly 21st-century work is a charming string quartet by Paul Moravec called "Vince and Jan: 1945." It's based on a World War II-era photo of Moravec's parents, Vince and Jan (see sidebar at right).

Last night, Gustavo Dudamel made his debut as the new music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Host Fred Child was there, and will share his experience of the big event. We'll hear excerpts from Mahler's first symphony from the concert. Plus, our weekly 21st-century work is a charming string quartet by Paul Moravec called "Vince and Jan: 1945." It's based on a World War II-era photo of Moravec's parents, Vince and Jan (see sidebar at right).

The wait is almost over. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel is just about to take the helm as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His debut concert is tonight, and host Fred Child will be there. We'll be featuring a live webcast of the concert, and will include highlights on Friday's show. We'll get ready for the Big Event today by featuring several past performances with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including a high-energy performance of music from Berlioz'"Symphonie Fantastique."

British composer and conductor Peter Maxwell Davies is considered a national treasure in the U.K. He celebrated his 75th birthday last month. The BBC Proms featured not one but two special concerts in Davies' honor. Davies humbly pronounced himself "thrilled to bits" at the honor. We'll hear a work from one of these concerts, where Davies conducted the Royal Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture.

Nothing but clarinets in hour 1, with single-reed masterpieces by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Steve Reich. (Don't miss Sabine Meyer's stellar performance of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, or Richie Hawley's hypnotic performance of "New York Counterpoint" by Steve Reich.) In hour 2, Zubin Mehta conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in the Symphony No. 4, by Brahms. A concert last month at the BBC Proms in London.

While Jean Sibelius was working on his fifth symphony, the Russians were occupying his native country of Finland. Food was scarce, his health was poor. Sibelius wrote in his diary: "In a deep valley again. But...God opens His door for a moment, and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony." Music direct from heaven (at least according to Sibelius) is on the way on today's PT, performed by Garry Walker and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

American composer Charles Ives had a day job selling insurance, so he could feed his family. But in his free time, he fed his own soul by writing music. Ives' third symphony is peppered with hymn tunes that most audience members of the day would have easily recognized. Today, those kinds of cultural references might not be so easily understood. See how many tunes you can recognize as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya perform Ives' third, nicknamed "Camp Meeting."

Tilting at windmills. Doing battle with a flock of sheep. Miguel de Cervantes' wildly delusional knight-errant, Don Quixote, has been a favorite literary character since he first appeared in 1605. Quixote puts in appearance on today's show in the form of Richard Strauss' tone poem of the same name. It calls for a solo cello and viola, portraying Don Quixote and his faithful sidekick, Sancho Panza. Cellist Tamas Varga and violist Christian Frohn are the featured soloists in this recent BBC Proms performance, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Zubin Mehta.