Performance Today®

We all have our little morning rituals. Sometimes it's just habit. But when it's intentional, the way you start your day says a lot about you. For Pianist Andras Schiff, it's almost always the same. He spends an hour or so playing preludes and fugues from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Schiff never tires of it. He says, "As long as I live and I am lucky to be in good health, I want to continue to explore the mysteries of this music." This weekend, we'll feature music and conversation with Andras Schiff and PT host Fred Child, on Bach's vast and mysterious Well-Tempered Clavier.

Was he the most talented unknown composer of the 20th century? Some called him the Canadian Mozart. Andre Mathieu was an astonishing prodigy as a composer and pianist. He played his own compositions at Carnegie Hall when he was 11. He beat the young Leonard Bernstein in a composition competition when he was 13. But he was also deeply troubled. He withdrew from public life before his 20s, and died, already forgotten, at age 39 in 1968. We'll hear the Tucson Symphony in concert, playing a set of Ballet Scenes by Andre Mathieu. Plus, we'll wrap up our series with pianist Andras Schiff on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

The ancient Greeks were onto something when they assigned the god Apollo to two very important functions. One of his jobs was to carry the sun across the sky each day in his chariot. The other was to be the patron of music. The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra is better known as Apollo's Fire. They're with host Fred Child in the PT studios today, bringing light and music by Bach and Vivaldi. Plus, Day 3 of music and conversation with pianist Andras Schiff on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

The Cleveland baroque orchestra Apollo's Fire joins PT host Fred Child in the studio for conversation and music by Bach and Vivaldi.

Violinist Rachel Podger was once told by her teacher that Baroque violin playing was only for those who can't play real violin. She didn't think much of that opinion. So she smiled and nodded at her teacher, and sneaked out and took Baroque violin lessons on the side. Podger has since become one of the great early music interpreters, and performs with London's Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in today's show. Podger is both soloist and conductor in a Haydn violin concerto. Plus, Day 2 of music and conversation with pianist Andras Schiff on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

We all have our little morning rituals. Sometimes it's just habit. But when it's intentional, the way you start your day says a lot about you. For Pianist Andras Schiff, it's almost always the same. He spends an hour or so playing preludes and fugues from J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. Schiff never tires of it. He says, "As long as I live and I am lucky to be in good health, I want to continue to explore the mysteries of this music." Today marks the start of a four-day series of music and conversation with Andras Schiff and PT host Fred Child, on Bach's vast and mysterious Well-Tempered Clavier.

PT host Fred Child sat down with Andras Schiff recently at the 92nd Street Y in New York to take a long look at the the subtleties, nuances and challenges of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

The Roma people (also known as Gypsies) have long lived on the fringes of Eastern European society. But even though they themselves have been marginalized, their influence on classical music has not. In today's show, we'll hear Haydn's "Gypsy Rondo" Trio and the world premiere of Mark O'Connor's "March of the Gypsy Fiddler."

No one was able to save composer Marcel Tyberg from a sad death in the Nazi concentration camps in 1944. But a valiant effort over the last 70 years involving one of Tyberg's students, conductor JoAnn Falletta, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, was successful in saving much of his music. JoAnn Falletta joins host Fred Child today to tell the story of Marcel Tyberg and her trip to Croatia to conduct his Second Symphony in the tiny town where Tyberg composed it.