From the Sweet to the Sinister

‘Performance Today’ has selected performer and composer Jessie Montgomery as the 2025 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!

When composer and pianist Franz Liszt was a young man, he was fascinated with death. He went to hospitals to observe people who were sick or dying. He went to prisons to meet people who had been condemned to die. On today’s show, we’ll hear Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, The Dance of Death, a piece based on the Dies Irae, a chant from the Catholic Mass for the Dead.

Today, we'll hear two Chopin Competition Gold Medalists… at the same time. Yulianna Avdeeva and Garrick Ohlsson shared the stage at the 2025 International Chopin Competition to perform Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos, a musical pastiche of Mozart, French songs, and jazz.

On today's show, we explore music by Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans. Join us at a concert in Wismar, Germany, to hear a performance of Bosmans's String Quartet, a piece from a time when in-home concerts were a matter of necessity for artists whose work had to be kept undercover.

On today's show, we explore the fascinating career of German composer Emilie Mayer. Join us at a concert in Houston for a ROCO performance of Mayer's Symphony No. 4, a piece she composed in 1850 that was only recently reconstructed by German composer and arranger Andreas Tarkmann.

Violinist Leila Josefowicz has built a career exploring less conventional music; she is well known for performing works by 21st-century composers. She also connects with Igor Stravinsky's music because he was interested in exploring unexpected sounds. Today, we take you to a recent concert in Berlin to hear Leila Josefowicz perform Stravinsky's Violin Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Roderick Cox.

Jeannette Sorrell founded the early music group Apollo's Fire back in 1992... and that fire is still burning hot. We'll hear Apollo's Fire at a concert in Cleveland on this episode of Performance Today.

Composer Damien Geter spent much of the pandemic reliving his love of 90s neo-soul. He says the music of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and Lauryn Hill helped him get through. As a classical composer, he wanted to write his own music in homage to neo-soul. On today's show, we'll hear what he came up with: "Neo-Soul," the String Quartet No. 1 by Damien Geter.

In 1911, Spanish composer Enrique Granados composed a set of six pieces for solo piano. These works were inspired by the paintings of Spanish artist Francisco Goya and showcase a distinctly Spanish influence. On today's program, we'll hear emerging American pianist Angie Zhang perform the first piece from Enrique Granados's Goyescas collection.

American composer Adolphus Hailstork has a series of pieces called his "cathedral series," which emphasize the sense of centeredness and calm found within sacred spaces. Join us for a moment of stillness with Hailstork's meditative work, Sanctum: Rhapsody for Viola & Piano, from a concert presented by Spivey Hall at Clayton State University, just south of Atlanta in Morrow, Georgia.