Performance Today®

For pianist Evgeny Kissin, playing to a live audience is an emotional balancing act. On the one hand, he says that it's so emotionally draining that he limits the number of concerts he gives. But he also says he wouldn't have it any other way. When someone asked if he tries to forget about the audience during a concert, he was incredulous. He said, "Why on earth should I try to forget about the audience when it is for them that I go on stage and play?" In today's show, Evgeny Kissin plays to an audience at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.

Classical musicians often trace their lineage, not through their parents, but through their teachers. Being able to say "My teacher's teacher's teacher's teacher was Beethoven" is something that sounds impressive. But with so many generations in there, does it really imply anything? In today's show, a classical guitarist who was a first-generation student of the legendary Andres Segovia. We'll hear the student, Sharon Isbin, play music written for her teacher, Joaquin Rodrigo's "Fantasy for a Gentleman."

Today's show features some of the greatest performances of the 20th century, including Vladimir Horowitz's return to the stage after a dozen years of self-imposed exile. Plus, Leonard Bernstein conducting an international orchestra at the Berlin Wall just after it fell. And Mstislav Rostropovich's (pictured) return to Russia, leading an American orchestra in an all-American tune, "Stars and Stripes Forever."

It started as a way to communicate in the gold mines of South Africa, where workers were chained together, forbidden to talk. Now it's an important and beloved part of South African culture. British composer David Bruce explains the story of gumboot dancing, and talks about his new piece called "Gumboots." We'll hear a performance from the Spoleto Festival USA.

Like other complex pieces of machinery, musical instruments evolve and improve over time. In 1795, Anton Weidinger invented the equivalent of power steering for the trumpet. He created a trumpet with keys, so the player could play every note with ease, not just some of them. Weidinger also happened to be a colleague of Joseph Haydn's. The result of that confluence was Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E-flat. We'll hear a performance by British trumpeter Alison Balsom, from a concert last month in Manchester, England.

Two giant turbines loom large on the stage. Black iron hooks and chains dangle from the ceiling. No, it's not a medieval torture chamber. It's a concert venue, although an admittedly unusual one. It's the Heimbach Power plant in Germany, site of the Spannungen Chamber Music Festival. We'll hear a Dvorak piano quintet from Heimbach today on PT.

The combination of an unusually thin skin and some particularly sharp digs by critics completely deflated Sergei Rachmaninoff, and sent him into a tailspin after the premiere of his first symphony. One critic compared it to the seven plagues of Egypt. Ouch. It took years for him to recover. Luckily, his second symphony was a monster hit, still an audience favorite today. We'll hear highlights, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Memorial Day began as a day to honor the fallen soldiers of the American Civil War. Today, we celebrate and honor all those who have given their lives in service to their country. Cantus, PT's Artists in Residence, join host Fred Child today for music and conversation in honor of Memorial Day.

What could be more exciting for a musician than playing concertos with the world's great orchestras? Ask Joshua Bell that question, and he'll tell you: playing chamber music. Bell says there's nothing he likes better than making chamber music, taking an audience through an entire two-hour musical journey. He sets aside time in his schedule every year for a big recital tour. In today's show, we'll hear a highlight from this year's tour, a violin sonata by Edvard Grieg.