Wednesday August 27, 2003

Performance Today

Chopin Prelude

August 27, 2003 • Joining Bruce Adolphe and Fred Child on stage is pianist Riko Higuma, who demonstrates the Piano Puzzler by playing the Prelude in E minor by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849).

Chopin Prelude

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Friday August 15, 2003

Performance Today

La Jolla SummerFest 2003 -- Tea for Two

August 15, 2003 • Performance Today host Fred Child has spent all week at La Jolla Summerfest, the annual summer music festival in La Jolla, California, hard by the Pacific coast. We wrap up our week at Summerfest, as Fred is joined on stage by four young string players -- violinists Adele Anthony and Michael Shih, violist Ori Kam, and cellist Kristina Cooper. The four players get together in twos and threes all hour for string duos and trios. We start with a duo for violin and viola. It's the "Passacaglia," by Handel (1685-1759), arranged by Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935).

La Jolla SummerFest 2003 -- Tea for Two

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Wednesday August 13, 2003

Performance Today

La Jolla Puzzler

August 13, 2003 • The Piano Puzzler goes on the road. Performance Today host Fred Child is on stage at La Jolla (HOY-uh) Summerfest, along with pianist and composer Bruce Adolphe. This time our contestant is sitting on stage with Fred and Bruce, instead of calling in on the phone.

La Jolla Puzzler

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Tuesday August 12, 2003

Performance Today

East Meets West at La Jolla, Part 2

August 12, 2003 • We're back with Fred Child, on stage at La Jolla SummerFest. Pipa player Wu Man is back, too. She joins violinist Cho-Liang Lin, cellist Felix Fan, flutist Marisela Sager and percussionist Steven Schick to play a concert suite from a brand new opera by Philip Glass (b. 1837) -- "The Sound of a Voice." We also hear a piece for cello, percussion and piano called "Spiral," by Chinese composer Chinary Ung (b. 1942). And cellist Felix Fan and percussionist Steven Schick close the hour with "Farewell," from Tan Dun's (b. 1957) music for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

East Meets West at La Jolla, Part 2

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Performance Today

East Meets West at La Jolla, Part 1

August 12, 2003 • We're spending the hour with Performance Today host Fred Child. He's on stage at La Jolla (HOY-uh) SummerFest with festival director and violinist Cho-Liang Lin, who, along with pianist Aleck Karis, plays the opening movement of Debussy's Violin Sonata. Aleck Karis goes solo in Claude Debussy's (1862-1918) "The Moon that Shines on the Temple." And Fred introduces us to Wu Man, who plays an ancient Chinese instrument called the Pipa. Wu Man plays a tune called "Little Bright Moon."

East Meets West at La Jolla, Part 1

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Friday August 8, 2003

Performance Today

PT @ Aspen 2003

August 8, 2003 • The International Sejong Soloists close out the week of coverage from Colorado. They join Performance Today host Fred Child on stage in Harris Hall to talk about what the itinerant young orchestra is up to these days. The Sejongs also perform -- first, the Octet for Strings, Op. 11 by Shostakovich, followed by an arrangement of Bach's "Mein Jesus" for strings.

PT @ Aspen 2003

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Thursday August 7, 2003

Performance Today

PT @ Aspen 2003

August 7, 2003 • In the fourth in our series of conversations from this summer's Aspen Music Festival and School, Performance Today host Fred Child sits down with pianist Wu Han and her husband, cellist David Finckel. They talk about their life of performing and giving masterclasses, and how teaching is a two-way street. They also play music by Beethoven, his Cello Sonata in A, Op. 69.

PT @ Aspen 2003

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Wednesday August 6, 2003

Performance Today

PT @ Aspen 2003

August 6, 2003 • American violinist Alexander Kerr (CAR) joins host Fred Child from Aspen for conversation and performance. Kerr, the concertmaster of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, is spending the summer teaching at Aspen. Kerr and pianist Antoinette Perry play the Sonata Movement by Brahms, followed by some tunes from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess."

PT @ Aspen 2003

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Tuesday August 5, 2003

Performance Today

PT at Aspen 2003

August 5, 2003 • Fred Child is joined by the Calder String Quartet for live music and conversation. The group plays the opening movement from Felix Mendelssohn's Quartet Op. 44, No. 1, followed by the last movement from Bela Bartok's String Quartet No. 4.

PT at Aspen 2003

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Monday August 4, 2003

Performance Today

The Week in Aspen

August 4, 2003 • Every day this week, we'll be dropping by one of the most prominent American summer music festivals, the Aspen Music Festival and School. Fred Child is on location in Aspen, and each day, we hear him talk with some of this summer's crop of young musicians. We open the week with a cellist from Zurich, who, one could say, is a special guest of conductor and Aspen Music Director David Zinman. Zinman spends a good deal of his time leading the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich. Every summer he picks a promising young musician from Zurich and brings him or her to the Aspen Festival. This summer, Benjamin Nyfenegger (KNEE-fen-egg-er) made the trip from Switzerland. Fred talks with both Zinman and Nyfenegger. Then we hear the young cellist play the second movement from Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata in G minor, with Devin Kwan Loucks at the piano.

The Week in Aspen

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Thursday July 17, 2003

Performance Today

Music Review: Tartini Violin Concertos

July 17, 2003 • David Hurwitz is Executive Editor at ClassicsToday.com. He joins Fred Child to talk about a new recording of music by Guiseppe Tartini (1692-1770).

Music Review: Tartini Violin Concertos

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Tuesday July 15, 2003

Performance Today

Vieaux, Shanghai & Child

July 15, 2003 • Performing Luigi Boccherini's (1743-1805)Guitar Quintet in D Major is the Shanghai Quartet with guitarist Jason Vieaux, and guest percussionist Fred Child, playing castanets. The concert took place in Richmond, Virginia, where Fred was also on hand to tell the audience about each piece of music on the program.

Vieaux, Shanghai & Child

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Thursday June 26, 2003

Performance Today

Live in Studio 4A

June 26, 2003 • Violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Akira Eguchi join Fred Child in NPR's Studio 4A for the first of two conversations (today and tomorrow) about the music Gabriel Faure wrote for violin and piano. Faure isn't in the same category as, for example, Beethoven and Mozart, but when it comes to his violin music, many fiddlers place him on a high pedestal. Shaham and Eguchi play three short pieces for violin and piano -- Faure's "Berceuse," "Romance," and "Morceau."

Live in Studio 4A

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Tuesday June 10, 2003

Performance Today

O'Riley & Radiohead

June 10, 2003 • A new CD by pianist Christopher O'Riley is being released on the Sony Classical label today. O'Riley has done his own solo piano transcriptions of songs by the English art-rock band Radiohead. A year ago, O'Riley stopped by NPR's Studio 4A to play some of the songs and talk Fred Child about the project.

O'Riley & Radiohead

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Friday May 16, 2003

Live in Studio 4A: Gil and Orli Shaham

May 16, 2003 • Orli and Gil Shaham have not performed together in public as often as one might suspect. Apparently, their parents discouraged them from doing so. As Orli Shaham explains to NPR's Fred Child, she was "just ready to come out of the sandbox" when Gil was already started on a career. So, instead of tagging along with her big brother, she has become a renowned and respected concert pianist in her own right.

Live in Studio 4A: Gil and Orli Shaham

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