Performance Today®

Pianist Radu Lupu isn't exactly a media darling. He has a gruff exterior. He scowls at the audience when he performs, grants no interviews, and generally keeps to himself. But his playing is wonderfully warm and expressive. Today we'll hear him perform Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony.

Stravinsky once said that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Today we'll turn that around and have music about writing. Today's second hour features some musical works that are based on poetry, and others that are musical poems themselves. Plus, one of the orchestras on the show was just named the best in the world. Tune in to find out who the winner was.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2 Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy

When Antonin Dvorak lived in Bohemia, he wrote music that sounded Bohemian. And for the brief time he lived in America, he wrote American-sounding music, and encouraged American composers to do the same. Today we'll hear a performance of Dvorak's "New World" symphony featuring the Cleveland Orchestra, led by conductor Franz Welser-Most.

Today's show features lots of great American music and performances, from Barber's Violin Concerto to the beloved American tune, "Shenandoah." Plus, we'll have a performance of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, with its depictions of thankful celebrations. Whether you're busy fixing the turkey, or just relaxing with loved ones, make Performance Today part of your Thanksgiving holiday.

Today marks the Performance Today debut of Houston's River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Conductor JoAnn Falletta leads them in a recent performance of Richard Strauss' suite, "The Bourgeois Gentleman." Written for a play by Moliere, it's music about a commoner who aspires to join the nobility. Strauss manages to make fun of both along the way.

It may not be spring, at least in this hemisphere, but today you can get a taste of it. We'll feature a performance of Robert Schumann's "Spring" symphony from the Music Academy of the West. Normally depressed and anxious, Schumann wrote this sunny work at a time when he was blissfully, if only briefly, happy.

Igor Stravinsky borrowed all of the tunes from his ballet, "Pulcinella," from Italian music of the eighteenth century. But he put his own musical fingerprints on it. It's a delightful mix of old and new. We'll go to New York to hear a performance of the "Pulcinella" Suite by the New York Philharmonic.

A wonderful young piano trio called Trio Con Brio Copenhagen stopped by our studios recently for a visit. They sat down for an interview with host Fred Child and performed some inspired chamber music by Ravel and Smetana. Plus, we'll hear Wagner's overture to "The Flying Dutchman" from this year's Aspen Music Festival.

The first hour of our show features the music of Scandinavia. We'll hear music from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, culminating in the monumental piano concerto by Edvard Grieg. Grieg hailed from the lovely town of Bergen, Norway, and we'll hear pianist Andre Watts perform Grieg's concerto with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.