Poster Tennis scene
Tennis scene
PughPugh / Flickr
Performance Today®

Love and rackets

When Claude Debussy wrote music for the ballet "Jeux," he was picturing a game of tennis between two women and one young man. In tennis, "love" means nothing; in Debussy's music, love is everything. On Wednesday's Performance Today, we'll hear romance and seduction on the courts, from a concert by the New York Philharmonic.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Claude Debussy: Dances for Harp and String Orchestra: Movement 2 Danse Profane
Vera Badings, harp; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Bernard Haitink, conductor
Debussy: Orchestral Music
Philips 438 742

Georg Philipp Telemann: Burlesque de Quichotte: Movements 1-7
Tempesta di Mare; Gwyn Roberts and Richard Stone, artistic directors
Philadelphia, PA

The Piano Puzzler: This week's contestant is David Hempling from San Francisco, CA

Claude Debussy: Jeux
New York Philharmonic; Alan Gilbert, conductor
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY

Hour 2

Claude Debussy: Arabesque No. 1
Simon Trpceski, piano
Debussy: Images; Arabesques; Children's Corner; Clair de lune; L'Isle joyeuse
EMI 272

Johann Sebastian Bach: Flute Sonata in E minor, BWV 1034
Bach Collegium Japan: Kiyomi Suga, baroque wood flute; Masaaki Suzuki, harpsichord; Emmanuel Balssa, cello
Spivey Hall, Clayton State University, Morrow, GA

George Gershwin: Blues, from 'An American in Paris'
Italian Saxophone Quartet
Beaches Fine Arts Series, St. Paul's by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, FL

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30: Movements 2 & 3
Simon Trpceski, piano; Beethoven Academy Orchestra; Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival, Philharmonic Concert Hall, Warsaw, Poland

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About Performance Today®

To find a station near you on our Stations Listings page, click here.

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.

Performance Today® features live concert recordings that can’t be heard anywhere else, highlights from new album releases, and in-studio performances and interviews. Performance Today® is based at the APM studios in St. Paul, Minnesota, but is frequently on the road, with special programs broadcast from festivals and public radio stations around the country. Also, each Wednesday, composer Bruce Adolphe joins host Fred Child for a classical musical game and listener favorite: the Piano Puzzler.

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