Making sense of the music

‘Performance Today’ has selected performing-arts advocate Deborah Borda as the 2024 Classical Woman of the Year. This annual award recognizes women who have made significant contributions to the classical music art form and have inspired our listeners. Find out more!

The piece started out as a wind octet, and then Beethoven revised it into a quintet for strings. Then, in the 21st century, a bassoonist arranged the string quintet back into music for wind quintet. Don't worry if you've lost the plot—just join us to hear the group WindSync play great music by Beethoven on today's show.

The Ekstasis Duo loves to play the "secret jewels," lesser-known works they feel deserve to be heard. Today we'll hear them play a work that was lost for nearly a century: Three Pieces by Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinksy.

When deadlines are tight and work is stressful, the baby also starts crying. But for composer Valerie Coleman, her newborn's need for comfort created "unexpected serenity." On this episode of PT, we'll hear a trio written with a baby in one hand and a pen in the other: Rubispheres by Valerie Coleman. Plus, Brude Adolphe has this week’s piano puzzler!

In 1890, French composer Ernest Chausson wrote a wild piece that's difficult to put in one tidy box. It's part violin concerto, part piano concerto, and part sextet. It’s a great piece that isn’t played often enough. Tune in today to listen to a live performance of the Chamber Concerto by Ernest Chausson from the annual Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland.

Sharon Isbin is a master of Western classical music. Amjad Ali Khan is a master of Indian classical music. Together, they're building musical and cultural bridges. Join us at a concert in Aspen for a highlight from Sharon Isbin's and Amjad Ali Khan's Strings for Peace project.

When deadlines are tight and work is stressful, the baby also starts crying. But for composer Valerie Coleman, her newborn's need for comfort created "unexpected serenity." On this episode of PT, we'll hear a trio written with a baby in one hand and a pen in the other: Rubispheres by Valerie Coleman.

You can write about history with words, of course, but if you're writing about music history, why not compose a piece of music? Composer Astor Piazzolla told a story about the history of tango without a word. We'll hear a chapter from his 'History of Tango' on today's show.

For many, seeing an extraordinary celestial event is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. On this episode of Performance Today, we'll celebrate today's total eclipse with celestial music, including a musical reference to a total eclipse from eight centuries ago. We'll hear the overture to Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor.

Franz Schreker was an innovative Austrian composer in the early 1900s, but the Third Reich banned Schreker's music along with that of many other composers of Jewish origin. Now, some orchestras are reviving his music. We'll hear Franz Schreker's distinctive 'Kammersymphonie' ('Chamber Symphony') on today's show, with Alan Gilbert conducting the SummerFest Chamber Orchestra in La Jolla, California. Plus, Bruce Adolphe has this week’s Piano Puzzler!