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.
She may be just turning 20 this year, but French pianist Lise de la Salle has skill and interpretive depth far beyond her years. We'll hear her in concert in Metz, France, performing Camille Saint-Saens' Second Piano Concerto with conductor Jack Martin Handler and the Luxembourg European Soloists.
This English pianist is regarded as one of the world's great Schubert interpreters. And she says that one of the keys to her success is thinking of each Schubert work as a song. Last month in London, she gave voice to a pair of Schubert Impromptus at a recital in Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Our first hour is devoted to music designed for dancing, including a dance-friendly "Piano Puzzler" and a slice of Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis and Chloe," from Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall. And our second hour features music that's played a starring role in such films as "The Red Violin,""The Pianist,""The Piano" and "Amadeus."
The male vocal ensemble from Minneapolis stops by the town where they first formed - Northfield, Minnesota - to chat and sing music of Bobby McFerrin and Thomas Tallis, as well as a traditional gospel tune.
Christian Zacharias was an award-winning pianist before he became a conductor. And now he's among the best at pulling double duty, conducting an orchestra while also acting as piano soloist. He'll do that in St. Paul, performing Chopin's Second Piano Concerto with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Two weeks ago, the Beaux Arts Trio concluded its final North American tour with a concert in San Francisco. We'll take you there for pre- and post-concert conversations - thanks to our correspondent, violinist Daniel Hope -- as well as their performance of Dvorak's "Dumky" Piano Trio.
We'll celebrate Mothers Day by checking in with Vivian and Alisa Weilerstein, a mother and daughter who make up two-thirds of the Weilerstein Trio, then hearing them play Dvorak. The mother of violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith talks about watching her daughter win the Sphinx Competition by playing William Grant Still's "Mother and Child." And soprano Dawn Upshaw talks about music's place in her family's life before singing Ravel's "Three Poems of Stephane Mallarme" in St. Paul.
What happens when an orchestra known for a big, intense sound is launching a new organ in its home hall? They play a piece on which the organ' sound is as big as the orchestra's. Olivier Latry joins conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra for Saint-Saens' large-scale masterwork at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
After saying "Happy birthday" to Brahms and Tchaikovsky, we'll spend our second hour forging a connection between classical-era composer Christoph Gluck and the present day's Nico Muhly. The composers acting as links in this chain are Wagner, Mahler, Shostakovich and Britten. Among the performers are pianist Louis Lortie and Sinfonia Varsovia.
