Performance Today®

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 Monday's Performance Today, hear Mahler's youthful Piano Quartet in A minor, performed 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 this weekend's Performance Today, hear Koussevitzky's double bass Concerto, with Robin Kesselman on double bass, in concert with the Houston Symphony.

Is it a tree? Is it a silk cloth? Is it a whip? It IS music inspired by a famous parable about perspective. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll take you to a concert in Portland, Oregon, to hear "Aspects of an Elephant" by American composer Kenji Bunch.

In the early 1900s, composer Ralph Vaughan Williams came across an unpublished melody written over 300 years earlier. Williams then transormed that old tune into a gorgeous new piece of music. On Thursday's Performance Today, we get to hear it: "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, from a concert at the Grand Teton Music 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.

In 1895, Richard Strauss composed a musical fairy-tale... a 15-minute orchestral romp that celebrates a crass, anti-establishment prankster. On Tuesday's Performance Today, take a seat at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and hear the LA Philharmonic perform "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks" by Richard Strauss.

Alan Page played in nine Pro Bowls with the Minnesota Vikings. He then served over twenty years as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Now, he has a performance with the Minnesota Orchestra under his belt. On Monday's Performance Today, Alan Page narrates "Lincoln Portrait" by Aaron Copland, from a concert in Minneapolis.

Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara was 28 years old when he wrote his Symphony No. 1. It's a fascinating piece that is simply not played often enough. So.... on this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear the Buffalo Philharmonic in concert, playing the Rautavaara's Symphony No. 1.

Sheridan Seyfried composed a musical exploration of the relationship between two brothers. On Friday's Performance Today, Nikki and Timothy Chooi perform Seyfried's Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra, from a concert with the Lake George Music Festival Symphony Orchestra.