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Performance Today commemorates the life of pianist Milton Kaye -- who famously accompanied violinist Jascha Heifetz -- by playing an NPR interview Kaye gave earlier this year. And from that same session in his New York apartment, he also plays a bit of Chopin. Kaye died at 97 on Aug. 14.
Russian composer Anatol Liadov is probably most famous for the music he didn't write.
Barry Wordsworth leads the BBC Concert Orchestra in the suite from Manuel de Falla's ballet.
August 18, 2006 · Samuel Thompson was visiting New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. He found himself in the Superdome with thousands of others looking to escape the storm's fury -- and as the scene descended into chaos, he began to play... Web Extra: Thompson Plays Bach
August 22, 2006 · Ann Mason Stockton, a harp player who spent seven decades creating background music for some of Hollywood's biggest productions, died recently of heart failure in her Los Angeles-area home. The musician played on soundtracks for more than 800 films.
August 18, 2006 · Performance Today showcases a summertime performance featuring flutist and festival director Marya Martin, along with violinists Erin Keefe and Axel Strauss, violist Choong-Jin Chang, cellist Clancy Newman and double-bass player Donald Palma. They play "A Night Piece," by Arthur Foote.
August 15, 2006 · It was written in 1919, and in its bittersweet beauty, many listeners hear an elegy for those who died during WWI. It's the Cello Concerto by Edward Elgar. Our concert performance took place two weeks ago at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Lynn Harrell is the cello soloist, Donald Runnicles conducts.
August 14, 2006 · Pianist Martha Argerich runs a music festival in Switzerland that brings in seven different orchestras over a span of two weeks. She played a concerto in the final concert this year, just a few weeks ago. It's Haydn's lively Piano Concerto No. 6, with the Swiss-Italian Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Rabinovitch-Barakovsky.
August 11, 2006 · Heinrich Biber must have been the class clown when he was a kid. We catch him clowning around in his Sonata Jucunda, but the Camerata Nordica ratchets it up even more in a performance of it in Lincoln, Nebraska.
August 11, 2006 · In honor of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth, his music is being performed around the globe. A controversial new production of an unfinished opera Mozart wrote when he was 23, Zaide, has just opened in New York. Web Extra: Music from the Opera
August 10, 2006 · Aaron Copland's simple harmonies and melodies, and his use of folk and jazz idioms, helped establish a national musical style in America. The Dallas Symphony bids farewell to longtime music director Andrew Litton with a performance of Copland’s "Appalachian Spring."
August 10, 2006 · The Budapest Festival Orchestra performs "Improvisations on Gypsy Music," joined by Hungarian folk musicians. And members of the Keller String Quartet perform selections from Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins, based on folk tunes.
August 9, 2006 · Edward Elgar said he learned to write for strings by listening to the music of Handel. Elgar based his Introduction and Allegro for String Quartet and String Orchestra on Handel's concerto grosso style. The English Chamber Orchestra, with conductor Roy Goodman, gives a performance on the road in Montpellier, France.
August 8, 2006 · Polish violinist Henryk Wieniawski was a dazzling performer. According to one critic, it was because of his "combination of Slavic temperament and French elegance. He knew how to fuse Paganini's pyrotechnics with romantic imagination and Polish coloring."
August 7, 2006 · Pianist Leon Fleisher has faced many obstacles over the years, due to a debilitating hand condition. He's regained the use of that hand now, and uses both hands to play the Bach chorale "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" at Shriver Hall on the campus of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
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