Classical Music Agenda
Classical music listeners in Washington are going to be busy this month, since we are tracking an imposing number of must-see concerts and performances in February. We will pick the best of the best for you every Sunday here at DCist. If you want more information, go to our Classical Week in Washington feature at Ionarts.
THE BIG NAMES:
>> Without a doubt, the main event this week is the recital by legendary pianist Alfred Brendel on Tuesday (February 7, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society. Mozart may have been 250 years old last week, but Alfred Brendel turned 75 on January 6 and is still going strong. Widely revered for his interpretation of the Classical composers of Vienna, Brendel will play two sonatas by Haydn, one sonata by Schubert, and two pieces by -- yes, indeed -- Mozart. This DCist will be there, and we will have a review for you on Wednesday. If you can get there yourself, prepare to hear something wonderful.
>> French tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt is one of the leading singers of the Baroque performance movement, and he will be singing a concert of airs by Jean-Philippe Rameau this Sunday (February 12, 3 p.m.). Opera Lafayette will provide the orchestral music, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park. The program includes selections from Rameau's Platée, Les Indes Galantes, Les Fêtes d'Hébé, Zoroastre, and Hippolyte et Aricie. Tickets: $25 to $45 (students, special price of $7). Artistic director Ryan Brown will give a free pre-concert lecture at 2 p.m.
>> Guest conductor Christoph von Dohnányi will lead the National Symphony Orchestra this week, in a concert with cellist Alban Gerhardt. The program includes Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra, Brahms's first symphony, and Schumann's cello concerto. Performances are scheduled in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Thursday (February 9, 7 p.m.), Friday (February 10, 1:30 p.m.), and Saturday (February 11, 8 p.m.). Tickets: $20 to $79.
Not only that, but there are many free concerts this week.
FREE, FREE, FREE:
>> Get your lunchtime Bach fix this Tuesday (February 7, 12:10 p.m.) with this month's installment of the free Noontime Cantata series: Schau, lieber Gott, wie meine Feind (BWV 153). Members of the Washington Bach Consort perform on the first Tuesday of every month in the Church of the Epiphany (13th and G Streets NW).
>> Washington composer Andrew Simpson has been working on an operatic adaptation of the three tragedies of Aeschylus's Oresteia, with libretti by his wife, Sarah B. Ferrario. Michael Scarola, of New York City Opera, directs this premiere performance of the third and final opera in the trilogy, The Furies, in the recital hall of Catholic University's School of Music. All performances are free to the public, on Thursday (February 9, 8 p.m.), Friday (February 10, 8 p.m.), Saturday (February 11, 8 p.m.), and Sunday (February 12, 4 p.m.).
>> On Friday (February 10, 8 p.m.), a chamber group called the Czech Nonet will play a free concert of rare chamber works at the Library of Congress. Composers on the program include Novák, Mozart, and Brahms. On Sunday (February 12, 5 p.m.), the Georgian-born pianist Dudana Mazmanishvili, winner of 2005 Washington International Piano Competition, will give a free recital at the Phillips Collection (with price of admission to the museum). On the same evening (February 12, 6:30 p.m.), the Auryn String Quartet will join forces with violinist Hartmut Rhode to play quintets by Haydn, Bartók, and Dvořák on the free concert series at the National Gallery of Art.
ALSO WORTH MENTIONING:
>> Opera Bel Cantanti, a small local opera company, will give staged performances of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Aleko, the one-act opera he wrote to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory, based on Alexandre Pushkin's poem The Gypsies. On Friday (February 10, 7:30 p.m.) they will be in the Mt. Vernon Hand Chapel, George Washington University, Mt. Vernon Campus (2100 Foxhall Rd. NW), and on Sunday (February 12, 7:30 p.m.) at Christ Lutheran Church (8011 Old Georgetown Rd.) in Bethesda.
>> A concert likely to be a crowd-pleaser is scheduled for Friday (February 10, 8 p.m.), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's A Night in Havana program. They will play Cuban-inspired music by Gershwin, Copland, and Piazolla at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. There is limited availability of seats in all sections of the hall at the time of this writing.
>> The 21st-Century Consort always creates interesting programs of contemporary music, by living composers. On Saturday (February 11, 5 p.m.) they will give a concert on the theme of Time and Memory, consisting of modern music influenced by Mozart. There will be a pre-concert discussion at 4 p.m., all in the auditorium of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Tickets: $22.