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.
This week, "Performance Today" casts a spotlight on some excellent pianists. We'll start in Dallas, where Stephen Hough plays Rachmaninoff's seldom played Fourth Concerto with Andrew Litton and the Dallas Symphony. And then we'll go to St. Paul, where Stephen Kovacevich performs Beethoven's First Concerto with Joseph Swensen and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
We'll have plenty of music from Aspen this weekend, including Rachmaninoff preludes from pianist Lang Lang; a Mozart piano trio featuring violinist Julia Fischer, cellist Daniel Muller-Schott and pianist Jonathan Gilad; and South American works from guitarist Sharon Isbin.
We'll have plenty of music from Aspen this weekend, including Rachmaninoff preludes from pianist Lang Lang; a Mozart piano trio featuring violinist Julia Fischer, cellist Daniel Muller-Schott and pianist Jonathan Gilad; and South American works from guitarist Sharon Isbin.
If you're looking for a place where traditional concert etiquette is staunchly observed, then Amsterdam's Concertgebouw is generally a good example. So you have to imagine that a performance was particularly good to inspire a Concertgebouw audience to applaud lustily between movements of a concerto. Hear what inspired this outbreak of enthusiasm when Leonidas Kavakos plays Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Jaap van Zweden and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra recently completed an eight-city tour of China. We'll go to their concert in Shanghai to hear Christoph Konig lead them in Beethoven's powerful Symphony No. 7.
We'll have music both new and old that echoes with the sound of the 1920's. Composer John Harbison will talk about his new "Great Gatsby" Suite before we listen to the recent world premiere performance from Colorado's Aspen Festival. And we'll go to Houston to hear Jon Kimura Parker play George Gershwin's Piano Concerto with Hans Graf and the Houston Symphony.
Later this week, we'll be broadcasting from Colorado's Aspen Music Festival, and presenting a live concert from there. But we'll have plenty of music from Aspen today, including Rachmaninoff preludes from pianist Lang Lang; a Mozart piano trio featuring violinist Julia Fischer, cellist Daniel Muller-Schott and pianist Jonathan Gilad; and South American works from guitarist Sharon Isbin.
We'll spend an hour with music that evokes raging storms and unsettled seas. Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" Overture sets sail from Aspen, Colorado. Le Concert d'Astree summons up a storm by Rameau at France's Palace of Versailles. And we'll have some Malcolm Arnold sea shanties for winds before docking in Risor, Norway, for a lovely Mahler Adagietto.
A few weeks ago, conductor Gianandrea Noseda led the BBC Philharmonic in a pair of pieces by Robert Schumann at the orchestra's home hall in Manchester, England. We'll go there to hear Schumann's Overture to "Genoveva", as well as his lone Cello Concerto, with Paul Watkins as soloist.
