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.
Once upon a time, there was a clever little boy named Tom Thumb. His parents sent him to live in the woods; a fairly horrible state of affairs. And once upon a time, there was a composer who loved children's stories, but wanted them to sound less brutal. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear the result: Maurice Ravel's softening of the Mother Goose Tales.
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 Monday's Performance Today we'll hear Marshall's Bach-and-bluegrass inspired Mandolin Concerto No. 1.
Italian composer Ottorino Respighi once said, "I wonder why no one has made the fountains of Rome 'sing,' for they are, after all, the very voice of the city." No one else had done it, so Respighi did. On this weekend's Performance Today we'll hear "The Fountains of Rome," Respighi's homage to the unique voice of Rome.
The opening of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is incredibly memorable. You can sing along with every bit of it: the trumpet, the timpani, the big dramatic chords. On Friday's Performance Today, we'll hear the entirety of Strauss' most spine-chilling composition.
When the 25-year-old Mozart was working in Munich, his pal Friedrich Ramm played oboe in the local orchestra. In his spare time between rehearsals, Mozart wrote a special quartet for Friedrich. On Thursday's Performance Today we'll hear Mozart's music for a friend from a concert in Charleston, South Carolina.
Italian composer Ottorino Respighi once said, "I wonder why no one has made the fountains of Rome 'sing,' for they are, after all, the very voice of the city." No one else had done it, so Respighi did. On Wednesday's Performance Today we'll hear "The Fountains of Rome," Respighi's homage to the unique voice of Rome.
We met young American violinist Will Hagen this summer at the Aspen Festival, where he was a member of a student quartet. On Tuesday's Performance Today he'll make his solo debut on PT, playing a violin concerto by Saint-Saens.
On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear a concert from Shakespeare's hometown. The poetically named Orchestra of the Swan playing music by Robert Schumann.
When he took a Soviet orchestra on a U.S. tour in 1991, conductor Edvard Tchivzhel decided to defect; the result is a tale of Cold War intrigue in which Chuck E. Cheese plays a central role. We have the full story on this weekend's Performance Today, plus Tchivzhel conducting a recent concert in South Carolina.
