Robert Schumann wrote his Piano Concerto in A Major for his great love -- his wife, pianist Clara Schumann. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Martha Argerich play Schumann's musical poetry of love, from a concert in Switzerland.
What's the point of musical technique? According to pianist Andre Watts, technique allows you to create at will what you hear in your inner ear. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear what's going on in Watts' inner ear when he plays Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in concert in Houston.
Beethoven borrowed a tune from a popular opera when he wrote his Gassenhauer Trio; it was a song that everybody was singing in Vienna in 1797. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear a performance of Beethoven's Trio from an all-star concert in Bridgehampton, New York.
Hector Del Curto's great-grandfather and grandfather both played tango in Buenos Aires. Now, he carries on that tradition, as one of today's great masters of tango. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Del Curto play the bandoneon in concert at the Aspen Music Festival.
Sometimes the sound of the L.A. Philharmonic is so big, you would think it could move mountains. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll go to Los Angeles to hear the orchestra perform with earth-shaking results.
Beethoven borrowed a tune from a popular opera when he wrote his Gassenhauer Trio; it was a song that everybody was singing in Vienna in 1797. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear a performance of Beethoven's Trio from an all-star concert in Bridgehampton, New York.
On Tuesday's Performance Today, 20-year-old violinist Simone Porter joins us to perform a piece which she describes as a journey through the five stages of grief: Ernest Bloch's Nigun.
The Trumpet Society of Paris once asked Camille Saint-Saens to write a special piece for them featuring trumpet and small ensemble. Saint-Saens declined; he thought that the trumpet would overpower the group. But a year later, he reconsidered. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear the resulting piece: Saint-Saens' Septet with trumpet.
In 1791, the clarinet was still a work-in-progress; it hadn't fully been accepted as a member of the orchestra. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto helped change that. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear it from a concert in Zurich, Switzerland.
