Performance Today®

Our week on music and literature concludes with a conversation with composer Ned Rorem and librettist J.D. McClatchy. They created an opera version of Thornton Wilder's classic play, "Our Town," and they have some interesting ideas - and some strong disagreements -- about the intersection of words and music. And we'll listen to excerpts from a Juilliard production in New York.

Our week on the confluence of music and literature continues with pianist and poet Stephen Hough talking about what words can do that music can't, and vice versa. He also plays pieces by Emmanuel Chabrier and Mendelssohn in Denver. Then poet Bill Holm reads a poem inspired by Liszt's "Romance Oubliee" before we hear it played by violinist Rachel Barton Pine.

Our week of exploring the intersections between literature and music continues with music inspired by novels... and music that inspired novels. Telemann channels Jonathan Swift, Charles Ives pays homage to the Alcotts, and a Beethoven work gives birth to a Tolstoy novella. Then there are Richard Strauss' take on "Don Quixote," Reynaldo Hahn's Proustian piano pieces, and the poetry that launched Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons."

We're devoting the week to the confluence of music and literature. And we'll hear interesting insights on the subject from composer Dominick Argento and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff before hearing some Argento from Minneapolis and Quasthoff singing Schubert in Berlin.

We're devoting this week to the places where music meets great writing. Today, we'll have an hour on poetry, featuring a conversation with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and a tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca. Then we'll explore how myths and legends are retold in instrumental music by Schubert, Cesar Franck, Richard Strauss, Debussy and Bill McGlaughlin.

Christian Zacharias was an award-winning pianist before he became a conductor. And now he's among the best at pulling double duty, conducting an orchestra while also acting as piano soloist. He'll do that in St. Paul, performing Chopin's Second Piano Concerto with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

She may be just turning 20 this year, but French pianist Lise de la Salle has skill and interpretive depth far beyond her years. We'll hear her in concert in Metz, France, performing Camille Saint-Saens' Second Piano Concerto with conductor Jack Martin Handler and the Luxembourg European Soloists.

This English pianist is regarded as one of the world's great Schubert interpreters. And she says that one of the keys to her success is thinking of each Schubert work as a song. Last month in London, she gave voice to a pair of Schubert Impromptus at a recital in Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Our first hour is devoted to music designed for dancing, including a dance-friendly "Piano Puzzler" and a slice of Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis and Chloe," from Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall. And our second hour features music that's played a starring role in such films as "The Red Violin,""The Pianist,""The Piano" and "Amadeus."

The male vocal ensemble from Minneapolis stops by the town where they first formed - Northfield, Minnesota - to chat and sing music of Bobby McFerrin and Thomas Tallis, as well as a traditional gospel tune.