Performance Today®

In a recent concert in Vienna, pianist Yefim Bronfman was set to perform a Bartok piano concerto. There was a bit of a problem, what could be a significant problem for a pianist... he'd just gotten a bad cut on his finger. A polished professional, Bronfman insisted on going through with the performance, despite the pain and continued bleeding. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear Bronfman give a less sticky performance of Bela Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 3, with the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Valery Gergiev.

Every week Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We get a listener on the phone, and they try to name the hidden tune and the composer whose style Bruce is mimicking. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we have TWO listeners on the line... and they're celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary!

In 1830, French composer Hector Berlioz finished writing an innovative program symphony, his Symphonie Fantastique. It's an autobiographical piece for orchestra... the story of a young artist and his insatiable love for the perfect woman. On Tuesday's Performance Today, Andres Orozco-Estrada conducts the Houston Symphony in a performance of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Two years ago, the Artemis Quartet experienced the tragic loss of one of their own. On Monday's Performance Today, the story of how they were able to carry on. Then, hear the Artemis Quartet in a concert from the Union College Concert Series in Schenectady, New York.

In 1705, 20 year-old Johann Sebastian Bach walked 250 miles across Germany to hear Dietrich Buxtehude play the organ at St. Mary's Church in the town of Lubeck. At least that's how Bach explained it. On Saturday's Performance Today, our story is about Dietrich Buxtehude, organist and prolific composer. Hear Buxtehude's Ciacona in B minor, in a concert from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

It's a PT listener favorite... Cymbeline, by composer David Bruce, written in 2013 for mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital. On Friday's Performance Today, Avital and the Dover Quartet play Cymbeline in Savannah, Georgia.

Violinist Joshua Bell says that playing for an audience is not about playing the notes in a composition. it's about connecting with everybody in the room, creating a shared emotional experience. On Thursday's Performance Today, hear Joshua Bell play Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saens, recorded live at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

How do young pianists prepare for one of the most prestigious and most grueling music competitions in the world? Find out in a new podcast, sponsored by Performance Today.

Almost 40 years ago, James Schlefer first heard the sound of the shakuhachi, the Japanese wood flute. Today, he's among the few Westerners to be a certified Grand Master on the instrument. He's a composer, as well. On Wednesday's Performance Today, hear James Nyoraku Schlefer play the shakuhachi in a performance of his composition "Concertante".