Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

May 2, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

May 2, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

Violinist Gil Shaham has been going to the Aspen Music Festival since he was ten; he was a student there, he met his wife there, and now he goes back every summer for the fresh mountain air and to play music. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Gil Shaham and the Aspen Festival Orchestra play music by Bach.

May 1, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

May 1, 2015: Gil Shaham's Aspen history

Violinist Gil Shaham has been going to the Aspen Music Festival since he was ten; he was a student there, he met his wife there, and now he goes back every summer for the fresh mountain air and to play music. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Gil Shaham and the Aspen Festival Orchestra play music by Bach.

April 30, 2015: 158 years of musical experience

April 30, 2015: 158 years of musical experience

Pianist Richard Goode is 71 years old; conductor Herbert Blomstedt is 87. Recently, they pooled their 158 years of experience together for concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear their commanding performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27.

April 29, 2015: Piano Puzzler with a twist

April 29, 2015: Piano Puzzler with a twist

Every week, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a great composer; we then get one of our listeners on the phone who tries to name the composer and the hidden tune. This week, however, our Piano Puzzler has a twist. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll have two callers on the line -- a lovely couple from New York City.

April 28, 2015: Music of glorious contradictions

April 28, 2015: Music of glorious contradictions

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 is music of glorious contradictions. Delicate, with an undercurrent of aggression; full of both vivid light, and creeping shadow. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll take look back at the very definition of avant-garde, on the way from a recent concert in Warsaw, Poland.

April 27, 2015: Spring in Shakespeare's hometown

April 27, 2015: Spring in Shakespeare's hometown

The Orchestra of the Swan is based in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, England. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear their graceful performance of an appropriate seasonal piece: Robert Schumann's "Spring" Symphony -- Symphony No. 1.

April 25, 2015: Bach and bluegrass

April 25, 2015: Bach and bluegrass

American mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall is a big fan of both bluegrass and Bach. So when the New Century Chamber Orchestra asked him to write a new piece, he drew on these two musical styles for inspiration. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto from a concert in San Francisco.

April 24, 2015: Bach and bluegrass

April 24, 2015: Bach and bluegrass

American mandolin virtuoso Mike Marshall is a big fan of both bluegrass and Bach. So when the New Century Chamber Orchestra asked him to write a new piece, he drew on these two musical styles for inspiration. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto from a concert in San Francisco.

April 23, 2015: The Lezghinka

April 23, 2015: The Lezghinka

Get out your dancing shoes -- and a sword if you have one! On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll be dancing the Lezghinka, a traditional dance from the Caucasus, as we hear Simon Rattle conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in an explosive encore performance of Aram Khachaturian's Lezghinka.

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