When Mitsuko Uchida performs a Mozart Piano Concerto, she prefers to conduct while playing the piano, the same way Mozart would have done it in the 18th century. Uchida has been in close collaboration with the players of the Cleveland Orchestra for several years, playing all of the Mozart concertos. On Tuesday's Performance Today, she'll play and conduct his 23rd Piano Concerto from Severance Hall in Cleveland.
Top composers in the 1940's flocked to Hollywood to write for movies, including Igor Stravinsky. He was approached about a film depicting a Norwegian uprising against Nazi occupation. Stravinsky agreed to compose but demanded that his music wouldn't be altered. He didn't get his way, and the movie went ahead without him. On Monday's Performance Today, we'll hear Stravinsky's rejected movie score, "Four Norwegian Moods", performed by the US Marine Band.
In 1812, Beethoven composed joyful music in his Symphony No. 7, yet that time was a low point in his personal life. How could a person so unhappy write such cheerful music? That question haunted composer Kevin Puts so he decided to look for the answer by composing new music. This weekend on Performance Today, we'll hear Puts's piece "Inspiring Beethoven," in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, plus a performance of Beethoven's 7th from Dallas, Texas.
It was 50 years ago today that President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot in Dallas, Texas. On Friday's Performance Today, music to remember his impact and leadership. Also ahead, special music to commemorate the lasting legacy of composer Benjamin Britten on his centennial.
On Thursday's Performance Today, our Young Artist in Residence saxophonist Jonathan Wintringham is back in the studio. He is determined to expand the classical saxophone repertoire and grow its popularity on the concert stage. Wintringham will talk with PT host Fred Child and perform music full of character and adventure by Edvard Grieg.
It's a conundrum. In 1812 Beethoven wrote his Symphony No. 7, which is full of sunny melodies and phrases that bubble along. It sounds happy, yet Beethoven wrote it during a particularly low point in his personal life. How could a person so unhappy write such cheerful music? That question haunted composer Kevin Puts so he decided to look for the answer in music. We'll hear his piece "Inspiring Beethoven" on Wednesday's Performance Today.
Conductor Valery Gergiev feels eternally grateful to the London Symphony Orchestra. He says at that time, only his friends, family and former classmates knew that he was capable of conducting an orchestra. The London Symphony took a chance on the young Russian conductor and today he's one of the most famous men at the podium. We'll hear him conduct Debussy's La Mer in a homecoming performance of sorts with the London Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday's Performance Today.
While on vacation in Cuba, George Gershwin also found time for a little work. He heard a jazz melody at a concert, and later turned it into an orchestral showcase called Cuban Overture. Tap your toes to the the rumba rhythms played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Monday's Performance Today, from APM.
Josef Suk was a composition student of Antonin Dvorak in Prague, and later became his teacher's own son-in-law. This weekend on Performance Today, we'll hear Suk's Serenade for Strings performed in Berkeley, California. Plus, composer Bruce Adolphe has a musical riddle in this week's Piano Puzzler.
