This summer, it'll be our pleasure to take you on a musical road trip -- a virtual tour of the United States of Music. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll start our trip in New York City with the people and the place behind Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story.
The Minnesota Orchestra's concerts in Cuba were historic and, because of political implications, covered by news outlets around the world. But the greatest impact of the Minnesota Orchestra's trip to Havana this past weekend may have been in personal, musical, one-on-one connections. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear performances from the Minnesota Orchestra's recent Cuban concerts.
On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll head to a concert in Bucharest, Romania, to hear the Romanian National Orchestra playing a set of gorgeous highlights from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Plus, Bruce Adolphe joins us for this week's musical game, the Piano Puzzler.
One of the most well-known melodies in classical music is called La Folia. Scholars think the tune dates back to at least the 1500s. It's been interpreted and adapted by composers for the last 500 years. On today's Performance Today, we'll hear a 21st century version of the melody by Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra.
Violinist Nikolaj Znaider says there is a sense of inevitable perfection in music by Mozart. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll head to a concert in Copenhagen to hear Znaider perform Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3. Then, it's off to the Aspen Festival. Alisa Weilerstein plays the Cello Suite No. 3 by Bach.
The Symphony No. 5 by Beethoven was revolutionary when it was first played in 1808. When it's played well, it still packs a tremendously emotional punch. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll take that epic journey from darkness to light. Conductor Louis Langree leads the Cincinnati Symphony in Beethoven's Fifth.
Retro enough to call for Roman trumpets, but radical enough to call for a tape recorder playing alongside the orchestra. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear the New York Philharmonic in concert, performing Ottorino Respighi's retro and radical Pines of Rome.
Peter Tchaikovsky didn't like many other composers, but he loved Mozart. He once said, "It was... Mozart who inspired my first efforts, and made me love music above anything else in this world." On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear Tchaikovsky's homage to Mozart, a piece called "Mozartiana," from a concert in Warsaw, Poland.
In 1960, Maurizio Pollini won the top prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition. More than half a century later, Pollini hasn't lost his love for Chopin's music. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll drop in on a concert in Lucerne, Switzerland to hear Pollini perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. Bruce Adolphe joins us as well, with this week's Piano Puzzler.
