Performance Today®

with host Valerie Kahler

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.

All Episodes

Unfinished in Beaver Creek

Unfinished in Beaver Creek

Last week, we heard Vladimir Jurowski and the Russian National Orchestra play Anton Safronov's completion of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony. Today, we'll offer your comments about that piece, preceded by the orchestra's performance of Schubert's incomplete original from a concert in Beaver Creek, Colorado. Can it be improved upon? Your call.

Hold your applause...or don't

Hold your applause...or don't

Conductor David Robertson addresses the controversy about whether it's appropriate to applaud between movements of a symphony or not. His words to the audience come between the movements of a stirring performance of Dvorak's Eighth Symphony by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in L.A.

classical crossover

classical crossover

Jon Lord has crossed over from the rock world into the classical world. A founding member of the rock band Deep Purple, he's now a composer. Today Fred sits down for a chat with Lord about his music. Plus, we'll hear the final movement of Lord's piano concerto, "Boom of the Tingling Strings."

Two by Wu

Two by Wu

Pianist Wu Han joins us for a pair of musical conversations today. First, she discusses and performs the first half of Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons" in Washington, D.C. Then we'll go to Colorado's Aspen Festival, where she's joined by cellist David Finckel for the world premiere performance of Pierre Jalbert's Cello Sonata.

Two flamboyant and fiery pianists

Two flamboyant and fiery pianists

They've both been accused of being visually distracting with their onstage mannerisms, but they're still outstanding players. Olli Mustonen and Andre Watts will demonstrate their artistry with works of two Viennese contemporaries. Mustonen plays Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto in Hamburg with Kirill Petrenko and the North German Radio Symphony. And Watts plays three pieces by Schubert in Fort Worth, Texas.

a rocker goes classical

a rocker goes classical

For decades, Jon Lord was the keyboard player for Deep Purple, the British rock band that brought you "Smoke on the Water,""Hush" and "Woman from Tokyo." But now he's concentrating on classical composition. Today's show features the second half of a two-part conversation with Lord, as well as the second movement of his orchestral work, "Disguises," performed by Paul Mann and the Odense Sinfoniorkester.

classical crossover

classical crossover

Jon Lord has crossed over from the rock world into the classical world. A founding member of the rock band Deep Purple, he's now a composer. Today Fred sits down for a chat with Lord about his music. Plus, we'll hear the final movement of Lord's piano concerto, "Boom of the Tingling Strings."

something old, something new, something borrowed...

something old, something new, something borrowed...

Igor Stravinsky borrowed all of the tunes from his ballet, "Pulcinella" from Italian music of the eighteenth century. But he put his own musical fingerprints on it. It's a delightful mix of old and new. We'll hear a performance of the Suite from Pulcinella from the New York Philharmonic.

Beethoven's Septet at Spoleto

Beethoven's Septet at Spoleto

When chamber music lovers visit the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, they don't know what's being played at the afternoon chamber music concerts until they see the program written on a chalkboard outside the Memminger Auditorium. And what a delight it must have been to see a masterpiece like Beethoven's Septet for Winds and Strings listed there a couple of weeks ago. We'll have that performance on today's show.

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