Poster Fred Child
Fred Child
MPR

Performance Today®

with host Fred Child

All Episodes

April 22, 2015: The Piano Puzzler

April 22, 2015: The Piano Puzzler

Each week on our Piano Puzzler, composer Bruce Adolphe re-writes a familiar tune in the style of a classical composer. We then get one of our listeners on the phone to try to guess the tune and the composer whose style Bruce is imitating. Play along with our Piano Puzzler, on Wednesday's Performance Today.

April 21, 2015: Tomorrow's stars in concert

April 21, 2015: Tomorrow's stars in concert

The young players in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra are among the finest musicians in what might be the most talented generation in the history of music. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear tomorrow's stars in concert in Philadelphia playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol.

April 20, 2015: Stephen Hough

April 20, 2015: Stephen Hough

On Monday's Performance Today, Stephen Hough brings his poetic spirit to music by Johannes Brahms in concert in Aspen, Colorado.

April 18, 2015: Rossini on saxophone

April 18, 2015: Rossini on saxophone

Gioachino Rossini wrote a set of variations for clarinet in 1809 -- thirty years before the saxophone was even invented. But those clarinet variations just happen to work beautifully on soprano saxophone. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear Rossini's Variations for Soprano Saxophone from a concert in Dallas.

April 17, 2015: Hans Gal

April 17, 2015: Hans Gal

Conductor Kenneth Woods, who leads the Orchestra of the Swan in England, counts himself very lucky to have discovered the music of Hans Gal. On Friday's Performance Today, Woods will introduce us to music by 20th century composer Hans Gal, and tell us why it's so important to him.

April 16, 2015: Music to melt the heart

April 16, 2015: Music to melt the heart

Recently, violinist Ani Kavafian and pianist Inon Barnatan took the stage at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear two pieces from that concert that'll melt your heart: Clara Schumann's Romances for violin. Plus, we'll head to Warsaw, Poland to hear a suite from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt.

April 15, 2015: Holocaust Remembrance Day

April 15, 2015: Holocaust Remembrance Day

Every year, Holocaust Remembrance Day is set aside to commemorate the millions of lives stolen during World War II. On Wednesday's Performance Today we will honor the day with a symphony by a composer who lost his life in Auschwitz; Marcel Tyberg's The Symphony No. 3.

April 14, 2015: A glimpse into the infinite

April 14, 2015: A glimpse into the infinite

After hearing Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, a critic said the music provided "a glimpse of the infinite." On Tuesday's Performance Today, the Dallas Symphony will give us a peek into the immensity of Bruckner's last completed symphony.

April 13, 2015: The Kalevala

April 13, 2015: The Kalevala

The Kalevala is the national epic poem of Finland, with more than 22,000 verses. Composer Jean Sibelius told stories from the Kalevala in music; on Monday's Performance Today we'll hear up about 7,000 of those verses from a piece called Lemminkainen.

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