Performance Today®

Peter Tchaikovsky had poured time and effort into his new symphony in B minor, but couldn't decide on a subtitle. It was his brother, Modest, who suggested "Pathetique," referring to deep emotional anguish. The name stuck, but Tchaikovsky passed away just days after the premier. On Monday's Performance Today, the New York Philharmonic performs that iconic 6th Symphony from Lincoln Center in New York.

Concert pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin plays a rarely-heard gem by Franz Liszt, "The Blessing of God in Solitude," on stage at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Plus, composer Bruce Adolphe joins Fred Child for your weekly dose of Piano Puzzler.

In 1933, Alan Hovhaness was an idealistic composer at the start of his career. He was also fascinated with the new science of rocketry and space exploration. He followed new developments and discoveries for fifty years before finally composing a symphony he called "Star Dawn," inspired by the concepts around space flight. Hear a fascinating performance in concert on Friday's Performance Today, from APM.

When Anton Webern was given a class assignment by his music theory teacher to compose music for string quartet, he turned that task into a heartfelt expression of musical love. On Thursday's Performance Today, we'll hear the Jupiter Quartet perform that very homework assignment. Also, pianist Lang Lang joins forces with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to perform Tchaikovsky's powerful First Piano Concerto at Walt Disney Hall.

Composer Paul Dukas didn't have Mickey Mouse in mind when he wrote Sorcerer's Apprentice, but the piece has since been inextricably linked with Walt Disney's 1940 cartoon Fantasia. We'll hear a recent concert performance from the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam. Plus, composer Bruce Adolphe joins Fred Child for this week's Piano Puzzler.

Not your father's plastic recorder. Listen to the interview and the mellifluous sounds of four wooden recorders playing in harmony.

West Side Story has been an American musical theater classic for 56 years. On Tuesday's Performance Today, we'll hear a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story at Lincoln Center, a concert hall in the very New York neighborhood that inspired the story. Plus, a dear friend of Peter Tchaikovsky's writes touching music of remembrance after the composer's sudden death.

In 1992, Alina Pogostkina and her family moved from the recently collapsed Soviet Union to Heidelberg, Germany. They were broke so her family survived by playing music together on the streets. Twenty years later, Alina is a remarkable concert violinist. We'll hear her recent performance of the Korngold Violin Concerto in Belgium. On Monday's Performance Today, from APM.

El Sistema is a music education initiative started in Venezuela, a movement also rapidly growing in the United States. PT host Fred Child talks with Stanford Thompson, a national leader of El Sistema in America, about the impact of music education in our society. Plus, we'll hear an electrifying performance of tragic loss and star-crossed lovers in Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture to Romeo and Juliet from Leipzig, Germany. This weekend on Performance Today, from APM.