Monday August 29, 2005

Music Interviews

Composer Julian Milone at La Jolla SummerFest

August 29, 2005 • Host Fred Child wraps up his visit to La Jolla's SummerFest with composer Julian Milone, who has transformed familiar favorites and rewritten them for four violins and a double bass. After a chat with Milone, we hear a performance by violinists Cho Liang Lin, Jun Iwasaki, David Chan and Yoon Kwon, and bassist Jeremy Kurtz.

Composer Julian Milone at La Jolla SummerFest

Audio will be available later today.

Sunday August 28, 2005

Performance Today

Piano Puzzler

August 28, 2005 • Performance Today host Fred Child describes Bruce Adolphe's Piano Puzzler as a kind of collision between musical worlds. We hear the worlds collide onstage at La Jolla SummerFest in California, with a member of the Calder Quartet in the hot seat. Then excerpts from Stravinsky's Petrouchka, played by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, help make Bruce's point.

Piano Puzzler

Audio will be available later today.

Saturday August 27, 2005

Performance Today

Piano Puzzler

August 27, 2005 • Performance Today host Fred Child describes Bruce Adolphe's Piano Puzzler as a kind of collision between musical worlds. We hear the worlds collide onstage at La Jolla SummerFest in California, with a member of the Calder Quartet in the hot seat. Then excerpts from Stravinsky's Petrouchka, played by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, help make Bruce's point.

Piano Puzzler

Audio will be available later today.

Friday August 26, 2005

Music

Brahms Horn Trio at La Jolla SummerFest

August 26, 2005 • Performance Today host Fred Child has been on the road for most of August. We meet up with him in La Jolla for a SummerFest performance of the Brahms Horn Trio, Op. 40 and chat with the musicians, hornist Jennifer Montone, violinist Kyoko Takezawa and pianist Cecile Licad.

Brahms Horn Trio at La Jolla SummerFest

Audio will be available later today.

Wednesday August 24, 2005

Music

Calder Quartet Performs at La Jolla SummerFest

August 24, 2005 • Performance Today host Fred Child is visiting the La Jolla SummerFest in California. The Calder Quartet joins Child on stage for a discussion about their work. Then, we hear them perform Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade, the Largo to "From My Life" by Smetana, and Beethoven's Quartet Op. 130, the Presto.

Calder Quartet Performs at La Jolla SummerFest

Audio will be available later today.

Tuesday August 23, 2005

Studio Sessions

Chatting with Robert McDuffie at Aspen

August 23, 2005 • Performance Today host Fred Child is on stage at a special NPR evening at the Aspen Music Festival. Violinist Robert McDuffie joins him for a chat, and then McDuffie and pianist Grace Cho play Arvo Part's Spiegel im Spiegel.

Chatting with Robert McDuffie at Aspen

Audio will be available later today.

Studio Sessions

Kristian Bezuidenhout, Live at NPR

August 23, 2005 • Fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (bih-ZAY-den-hoat) joins Performance Today host Fred Child in NPR's Studio 4A. Bezuidenhout is a 24-year-old pianist from South Africa who plays both fortepiano and modern piano. When he's playing music from the period in which composers were writing for the fortepiano, he prefers to play it on that instrument. Bezuidenhout plays a sonata in E-minor by CPE Bach, and then the "Piano Sonata Op. 10, No. 3" by Beethoven. He performs on a fortepiano made by Thomas and Barbara Wolf in 1992.

Listen to fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout

Audio for this story is unavailable.

Friday August 19, 2005

Music Interviews

Sharon Isbin and Thiago de Mello at Aspen

August 19, 2005 • Grammy-winning guitarist Sharon Isbin and percussionist Thiago de Mello talk about their music with Performance Today host Fred Child on stage at the Aspen Music Festival. Then, we hear the duo perform two pieces by de Mello and a waltz by Antonio Lauro.

Sharon Isbin and Thiago de Mello at Aspen

Audio will be available later today.

Performance Today

Rodrigo

August 19, 2005 • Performance Today is on the road touring summer music festivals this month. Host Fred Child met up with guitarist Sharon Isbin on stage at the Aspen Music Festival. Before we take you to Harris Hall in Aspen, here's music Isbin recorded for the Virgin Classics label. It's "Canario," the last movement of Joaquin Rodrigo's Fantasia for a Gentleman.

Rodrigo

Audio will be available later today.

Thursday August 18, 2005

Music Interviews

Violinist Anna Lee

August 18, 2005 • At the tender age of 10, violinist Anna Lee is already reflecting on how she got her start in the classical music world. She talks to Performance Today host Fred Child from the Aspen Music Festival. We also hear her perform a movement from a Wieniawski violin concerto.

Violinist Anna Lee

Audio will be available later today.

Thursday August 11, 2005

Music Interviews

Yo-Yo Ma on Tradition, Innovation

August 11, 2005 • Yo-Yo Ma joins Performance Today host Fred Child to talk about the tradition, and innovations, of the music played by the Silk Road Ensemble. We also a hear a perfomance from La Jolla SummerFest in La Jolla, Calif.

Yo-Yo Ma on Tradition, Innovation

Audio will be available later today.

Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble

August 11, 2005 • Many of the chamber music concerts that are part of La Jolla SummerFest, in La Jolla, Calif., are held in a small auditorium in La Jolla's Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. But the scale was much bigger last weekend when SummerFest presented Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble in San Diego's downtown Civic Theater, which seats more than 3,000 people. Every seat in the house was full for that concert, and you can hear the audience's excitement in their response to "Ambush from Ten Sides," music based on an ancient Chinese legend. And Yo-Yo Ma joins Fred Child to talk about the tradition, and innovations, of the music played by the Silk Road Ensemble.

Friday July 29, 2005

Performance Today

Telemann

July 29, 2005 • Eight musicians from Hanover, Germany join Fred Child in the NPR studios to share music by Telemann. Musica Alta Ripa picked three Telemann selections for their NPR visit: his Quartet in G minor for Recorder, Violin, Viola and Continuo; a Cello Sonata; and four movements of the Overture in B minor. The eight members of Musica Alta Ripa are Danya Segal, recorder; Anne Rohrig, violin; Ursula Bundies, violin and viola; Susanne Dietz, violin; Christoph Heidemann, viola; Juris Teichmanis, violoncello; Jacques van der Meer, double bass; and Bernward Lohr, harpsichord.

Telemann

Audio will be available later today.

Friday July 22, 2005

In Performance

Gustavo Romero's Unlikely Path to the Piano

July 22, 2005 • Gustavo Romero, 40, grew up in a non-musical family. But a neighbor's piano was his entry to the world of performance. He tells Fred Child about his early days and plays selections from Enrique Granados and Federico Mompou in NPR's Studio 4A.

Gustavo Romero's Unlikely Path to the Piano

Audio will be available later today.

Performance Today

Granados

July 22, 2005 • Pianist Gustavo Romero is just as at home in NPR's Studio 4A, as he is on concert stages all over the world. He joins Fred Child to talk about his unusual history and his current career. We hear him play the bravura Allegro de Concierto by Enrique Granados, followed by a Prelude of Federico Mompou.

Granados

Audio will be available later today.