Performance Today®

Pelleas and Melisande is a story about a love triangle that can't end well, and doesn't end well... but the story is irresistable for composers. We'll hear Gabriel Faure's take on the story; his suite from Pelleas and Melisande, on Thursday's Performance Today.

Nathalie Joachim is at the vanguard of a new approach to the classical tradition. She combines a wide range of musical styles and sounds - classical, soul, hip-hop... really, anything goes. On Wednesday's Performance Today, join us for music and conversation with flutist and composer Nathalie Joachim.

Le Pont Mirabeau: New music by Wang Jie, composed during PT's 2018 musical tour of Paris and Normandy.

Alan Hovhaness read Dante's Divine Comedy, including the line: "O human race, born to fly upward..." Those words sparked a lifetime of musical ideas, inspired by the idea of space travel. On Tuesday's Performance Today, hear "Star Dawn" by Alan Hovhaness, performed by the United States Marine Band.

Antonin Dvorak wrote his marvelous Bagatelles as a gift for a dear friend. He never meant them for public performance. Lucky for us, they escaped to the wider world. We'll hear Dvorak's Bagatelles from a concert in Seattle. Plus, concert highlights from the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on the next Performance Today, from APM.

Serge Koussevitzky was famous as a 20th century conductor, but he was also a composer... and a virtuoso on the double bass. On this this weekend's Performance Today, hear Koussevitzky's double bass Concerto, with Robin Kesselman on double bass, in concert with the Houston Symphony.

Leonard Slatkin says conducting gives him a sense of great power and, at the same time, a feeling of helplessness. On Friday's Performance Today, Slatkin talks to us about the curious art of conducting. Plus, we'll hear him lead a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4, from a concert in Warsaw, Poland.

Gustav Mahler destroyed nearly all the music he'd written as a teenager. But one piano quartet survives... written when he was just 15 years-old. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Mahler's youthful Piano Quartet in A minor, from a concert at the Music@Menlo festival.

Serge Koussevitzky was famous as a 20th century conductor, but he was also a composer... and a virtuoso on the double bass. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear Koussevitzky's double bass Concerto, with Robin Kesselman on double bass, in concert with the Houston Symphony.