Dear listeners,

You may have noticed that Fred has been a festival junkie this summer.
Ravinia, Grand Teton, La Jolla, Aspen...  He did go parasailing once,
but mostly he's been behind the scenes, meeting musicians and collecting
music for the show.  On Monday, we'll hear what Fred was up to in Aspen
a few weeks ago.  He hosted a concert with violinist Robert McDuffie, a
concert that featured the American debut of a teenaged gypsy fiddler who
can play notes faster than anyone can think.  Also this week, we'll hear
the gold medal-winning performance from the Cleveland International Piano
Competition and the noted classical music biographer Jan Swafford will take
a look back at the legacy of Claude Debussy, the featured composer at this
year's Bard Music Festival.

I hope you can join us...

COMING UP ON PERFORMANCE TODAY
AUGUST 11 - 20, 2001

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

KORVA COLEMAN IS HOST

Saturday, AUGUST 11

Hour 1 -- The festival that Toscanini built: We'll hear a Mozart wind
serenade from this year's Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.  It was founded
in 1938, and became a haven for musicians who were unable or unwilling to
play in Hitler's Germany.

Hour 2 -- Performances by finalists at the Cleveland International Piano
Competition.  The winner will be announced tonight.  Plus, a roundup of
this week's classical music news.

Sunday, AUGUST 5

Hour 1 -- Verdi without words: The Italian opera giant Giuseppe Verdi only
wrote one string quartet.  We'll hear it played by the EOS Orchestra in an
arrangement by the group's conductor, Jonathan Sheffer.  They're in concert
at the Ethical Culture Society in New York.

Hour 2 -- Performance Today Piano Hour: Our highlight this week is the
Piano Concerto in G by Maurice Ravel.  He considered it a cross between
jazz and Mozart.  Our performance features Benedetto Lupo, a former bronze
medallist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

FRED CHILD IS HOST

Monday, AUGUST 13

Hour 1 -- An Aspen snapshot: This summer at Aspen, the
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio has been engrossed in Beethoven, playing
everything he ever wrote for violin, cello and piano. We'll hear a sampler
of those Beethoven performances this hour.

Hour 2 -- Performance Today at the Aspen Music Festival: Fred Child is
on stage at Harris Hall in Aspen for "An Evening with Robert McDuffie
and Friends." The distinguished violinist plays contemporary pieces by
Philip Glass and Leonard Bernstein, and he introduces the lightning-fast
fingerwork of a teenaged gypsy violinist who's making his American debut
on this broadcast.  Also joining Fred onstage are the members of a quartet
that's just gotten out of the starting gates, the Chiara String Quartet.

Tuesday, AUGUST 14

Hour 1 -- And the winner is...: On Saturday night, the Cleveland
International Piano Competition crowned a winner.  We'll hear the
performance that secured the first prize.  The gold medallist plays a
concerto with members of the Cleveland Orchestra from the competition's
final round.

Hour 2 -- Coming to Terms with Orchestration: It's one thing to write
the notes, but it's quite another to make them ring out into the orchestra.
Commentator Miles Hoffman joins Fred for a listening session to compare
three different versions of moments from "Pictures at an Exhibition."
Modest Mussorgsky wrote it for piano; many other composers have arranged
it for orchestra.

Wednesday, AUGUST 15

Hour 1 -- Swafford on Debussy: This summer, the Bard Music Festival is
exploring the revolutionary music of French composer Claude Debussy.  He's
been called an "impressionist," but we asked biographer Jan Swafford to
bring him into closer focus.

Hour 2 -- Puccini's take on electricity: Last week, a brass band in
New York played a piece that Puccini wrote in honor of Count Volta, the
inventor of the battery.  It was lost for more than a century.  We'll take
a listen.

Thursday, AUGUST 16

Hour 1 -- An 11th century Hero fights to save his country: Placido Domingo
joins Fred to talk about his role in Jules Massanet's opera "Le Cid." The
Washington Opera production will air on many PBS stations on Sunday night.

Hour 2 -- Basic Satie: Ted Libbey joins Fred to recommend recordings of
music by the eccentric French composer Eric Satie for the Performance Today
Basic Record Library.

KORVA COLEMAN IS HOST

Friday, AUGUST 17

Hour 1 -- Fred joins Korva live from the Tanglewood Music Festival in
Massachusetts.

Hour 2 -- Musical offerings: We'll hear a sampling of music performed in
concert.

Monday, AUGUST 20

Hour 1 -- The Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood: we'll hear a
performance from over the weekend at the Tanglewood Music Center in
Massachusetts.

Hour 2 -- Gorecki 3rd Redux: Almost a decade ago, conductor David Zinman
and soprano Dawn Upshaw recorded Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful
Songs," which has been called a "tribute to the power of prayer in the face
of recurrent inhumanity." This affecting and evocative music was a surprise
commercial success.  Yesterday, August 19th, David Zinman and Dawn Upshaw
teamed up again to perform Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 at the Aspen Music
Festival.  We'll bring you that performance.

CHECK OUT THE NEW PERFORMANCE TODAY WEBSITE!!: Remembering harmonica
player Larry Adler...Fred Child's diaries from Summerfest LaJolla...Listen
to Pepe Romero performing in NPR's Studio 4A.  Find out what makes
Gershwin's "Summertime so great.....  Listen to Jan Swafford and Terry
Teachout offer their perspectives on Wagner is Israel...  Listen to a PT
exclusive interview with Gian Carlo Menotti....Get up-to-date with the PT
Basic Record Library...  Come to terms with Encores...  Order your copy of
"Peter and the Wolf: A Special Report." You'll find it all at
http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/.

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NOTE: SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.  FOR EXACT BROADCAST TIMES, CONTACT
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TODAY AT (202) 513-2370.

Don Lee
Executive Producer
Performance Today