American Public Media’s Performance Today® is America’s most popular classical music radio program and a winner of the 2014 Gabriel Award for artistic achievement. The show is broadcast on hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including at 1 p.m. central weekdays on Minnesota Public Radio. More information about our stations can be found at APM Distribution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
On this weekend's Performance Today, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile will join Fred in the studio to co-host an hour of PT. He'll play some Bach, and talk about seeing his favorite Mahler symphony in concert. The musical enthusiasms of Chris Thile, on the next Performance Today.
On Friday's Performance Today, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile will join Fred in the studio to co-host an hour of PT. He'll play some Bach, and talk about seeing his favorite Mahler symphony in concert. The musical enthusiasms of Chris Thile, on the next Performance Today.
By it's very definition, a scherzo is a musical joke: spritely and playful. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear a scherzo by Felix Mendelssohn that fits that definition exactly -- right down to a smirk. From a concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, we'll hear the scherzo from Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No. 2.
