Szymon Laks was a prisoner at Auschwitz, and leader of the prison orchestra. He says music did not offer comfort or peace, that music became a kind of torture, but he played on because his very life depended on it. On Wednesday's Performance Today, the story and the music of Szymon Laks.
Composer and organist Rued Langgaard felt at odds with his Danish contemporaries... and he didn't keep it a secret. Langgaard was a prolific composer, but his dissonant personality separated him from the Danish musical establishment. His work wasn't truly recognized until after his death. Tune in for more about Rued Langgaard's life and music on Tuesday's Performance Today.
Ignacy Jan Paderewski was a dashing, virtuosic pianist around the turn of the 20th century. In 1919, he was the Prime Minister of Poland... his signature is on the Treaty of Versailles. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear Paderewski's Piano Concerto No. 1, from a concert in his hometown of Warsaw, Poland.
On Saturday's Performance Today, play along with this week's Piano Puzzler, and hear Joshua Bell and Sam Haywood play a sonata by Beethoven in concert at Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia.
Conductor Osmo Vanska says Jean Sibelius's 5th Symphony is the most positive and uplifting of all his symphonies. The symphony was composed and revised during the dark years of the First World War, but Sibelius had reason to feel optimistic, so very fortunate. The story behind Sibelius's 5th, and hear it in concert on Friday's Performance Today.
When Sam Haywood was four years old, his parents got a rickety old piano, with built-in candlestick holders. He would only play when the candles were lit. On Thursday's Performance Today, Haywood trades candlesticks for stage lights... hear him and Joshua Bell together in concert at Spivey Hall in Morrow, Georgia.
In 1933, 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 Wednesday's Performance Today, hear "Star Dawn" by Alan Hovhaness, performed by the United States Marine Band.
When Emma Resmini was a young girl, she didn't come out and tell her parents that she wanted to play the flute, but she had some interesting ways of hinting at it. On Tuesday's Performance Today, flutist Emma Resmini performs 'Undine' by Carl Reinecke, at the New York Flute Club.
It's a musician's nightmare: Arriving for a concert only to find a prize instrument... broken. Guitarist Matthew Greif had it happen twice in one tour! On Monday's Performance Today, the story of back-to-back broken guitars, and we'll hear the LA Guitar Quartet from a concert in New York City.
