Performance Today®

Dame Ethel Smyth was one of England's most successful turn-of-the-century composers.

If you're out and about celebrating St. Patrick's Day this weekend, you're bound to hear the ballad, Danny Boy. Hear an orchestral version in the Irish Rhapsody by Charles Stanford, on Friday's Performance Today.

When Maurice Ravel wrote Gaspard de la Nuit, he was trying to make it the most difficult piano music ever written... perhaps even unplayable. Benjamin Grosvenor plays the unplayable, in concert, on Thursday's Performance Today.

In 1957, the Library of Congress commissioned Francis Poulenc to write a work of music. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear proof that our tax dollars can be used for something beautiful, something that can last forever: the Sonata for Flute and Piano by Francis Poulenc.

When composer Ferde Grofe was in his twenties, he went camping at the Grand Canyon, and later translated his experience into music. Experience the wonder of the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe, from a concert in Buffalo, on Tuesday's Performance Today.

In 2007, Marin Alsop was named Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony... the first woman to lead a major American orchestra. Last month, she became the first woman to be named Chief Conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. On Monday's Performance Today, join us for conversation with Marin Alsop, then hear a Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performance of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

The Cincinnati Symphony recently celebrated the grand re-opening of their Music Hall with "Stories from Home," a world premiere work by Jonathan Bailey Holland. On this weekend's Performance Today, hear Jonathan Bailey Holland's musical exploration of Music Hall's location in Cincinnati.

In 1930, Maurice Ravel wrote a special concerto for Paul Wittgenstein, a pianist who had lost his right arm in the First World War. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear a performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, from a concert in Round Top, Texas.

Composer Fanny Hensel is considered to be one of the most important composers of the romantic era.