Depending on your point of view, Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben is either pompous, self-congratulatory excess or brilliant Romantic satire. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll hear a performance of this piece from Helsinki, Finland. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week's Piano Puzzler.
On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear Danish folk tunes arranged and performed by members of the Danish String Quartet.
Full interview, photos and video of the Danish String Quartet.
Aisslinn Nosky is a Canadian violinist who loves music from the 1700s. Despite her passion for traditional music, her signature look is anything but traditional. Nosky's trademark is her is hair, which is bright maraschino red and often kept short and spiky. It's a bold look that goes back to when she had to dye her hair for a role as a punk violinist in a TV commercial. On Monday's Performance Today we'll hear Nosky in her PT solo debut, playing Haydn's Violin Concerto in G Major.
Watch the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, with maestro Manfred Honeck and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter open the August 2013 Musikfest Berlin festival.
There are a few graceful, bursting sunrises in music. One by Richard Strauss, which became the iconic soundtrack for the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." And there's one in the ballet "Daphnis and Chloe" by Maurice Ravel. On this weekend's Performance Today, we'll hear a new musical sunrise by American composer John Mackey: "Aurora Awakes."
Every week on Performance Today we feature music written in the 21st century. On Friday's show we'll highlight a performance from the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, which brings together musicians from diverse musical genres.
Our current Young Artist in Residence is double bass virtuoso TianYang Liu. On Thursday's Performance Today he'll play his own arrangement of a violin showpiece: Pablo de Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen. It's hard enough to play on the violin, but it's practically impossible on double bass. Liu and his flying fingers, however, are more than up to the challenge!
Soprano Sharleen Joynt talks about covering a role at the Metropolitan Opera, her appearance on the TV show The Bachelor, and how a career in opera begs difficult questions about what is important in life.
