Poster The Minnesota Orchestra performing to an empty audience
The Minnesota Orchestra performing live without an audience, out of safety concerns due to Covid-19.
Joseph Scheller/Minnesota Orchestra
Performance Today®

A sign of the times

The Minnesota Orchestra played a concert in the middle of March, with no audience in the house, but live on stage and live on the radio. On today's show, we have the story, then hear pianist Kirill Gerstein play Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 with the Minnesota Orchestra and conductor Juanjo Mena, all for an empty hall.

Episode Playlist

Hour 1

Robert Schumann: Carnaval: Mvts 1-2
Kirill Gerstein, piano
Kirill Gerstein: Imaginary Pictures
Myrios 13

Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66: Movement 4 Finale: Allegro appassionato
Emily Daggett Smith, violin; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Adam Neiman, piano
Manchester Music Festival, Southern Vermont Arts Center, Manchester, VT

Joseph Achron: La Romanesca for Violin and Piano
Danbi Um, violin; Orion Weiss, piano
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2 in C minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 18
Kirill Gerstein, piano; Minnesota Orchestra; Juanjo Mena, conductor
Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, MN

Hour 2

Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor - Movement 1 Allemanda
Bella Hristova, violin
Bella Unaccompanied
A.W. Tonegold Records NA

Johannes Brahms: Concerto for violin and cello Op. 102: Movement 1
Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin; Joachim Eijlander, cello; National Symphony of Ukraine; Volidymyr Sirenko, conductor
National Symphony of Ukraine, Lysenko Colonnaded Hall, Kyiv, Ukraine

Erno Dohnanyi: Sextet in C Major for Winds, Strings, and Piano, Op. 37: Mvts 1-2
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Kevin Rivard, horn; Bella Hristova, violin; Matthew Lipman, viola; David Requiro, cello; Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Music@Menlo, The Center for Performing Arts at Menlo-Atherton, Atherton, CA

Leonard Bernstein, arr. Jack Gale: Bernstein Suite
Philadelphia Orchestra Brass Quintet
The Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, West Palm Beach, FL

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About Performance Today®

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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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