Classical Music Agenda
June is here, and that means that many of the major performing groups will be going on vacation. However, just as that happens, we have the Washington Early Music Festival most of this month, about which I'll write more next week. This week, both of the area's major symphonies are presenting major transcendant symphonies by Gustav Mahler, some of the most extravagant musical statements ever made. These works are not performed all that often, because of the demands on the musicians, so you should hear them now when you can.
MAHLERFEST:
>> First, the National Symphony Orchestra will perform what may be the biggest choral/orchestral work of all time, Mahler's eighth symphony, nicknamed the Symphony of a Thousand, a title the composer did not favor but that has stuck, because the total number of performers taking part in the first performance was over a thousand. It is one-half visionary setting of the Veni creator spiritus plainsong text and one-half a quasi-operatic setting of the sublime final scene of Goethe's Faust. Mahler described it as a work in which "there are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving." It requires not only a vast number of choirs -- Cathedral Choral Society, Children's Chorus of Washington, Choral Arts Society of Washington, Master Chorale of Washington, and the Washington Chorus will all take part -- but eight major vocal soloists, including in this performance two of the biggest operatic voices performing today, Jane Eaglen and Christine Brewer, as the sinful woman and the penitent. Soprano Christine Brandes will sing as the vision of the Virgin Mary, the Mater Gloriosa. All performances at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall -- Thursday (June 8, 7 p.m.), Friday (June 9, 8 p.m.), and Saturday (June 10, 8 p.m.) -- were apparently sold out long ago, but you can always call the box office directly to ask about last-minute availability.
>> Not to be outdone, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is performing Mahler's second symphony ("Resurrection") for the final set of concerts with conductor Yuri Temirkanov as the group's music director. The list of soloists is not as star-studded, but it is likely to be an emotional performance and Temirkanov knows and loves the work well. There will be one performance at Strathmore on Saturday (June 10, 8 p.m.). If you cannot make it then, you will have to go up to Baltimore on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday.
>> Not enough Mahler? You could actually schedule the NSO and BSO in such a way as to allow you to hear Mahler's fifth symphony, too, this Saturday (June 10, 8 p.m.) with the group of young performers attending this summer's National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland. Young conductor Michael Stern will also lead the group in Wagner's Siegfried's Funeral March and Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem, op. 20, at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park. Tickets are a lot cheaper, too: $20 and only $7 for students.
EARLY MUSIC:
The Washington Early Music Festival continues next weekend, with concerts by Hesperus (June 9, 8 p.m.), the Ignoti Dei Ensemble (June 10, 8 p.m.), Chantry and the Orchestra of the 17th century (June 10, 8 p.m.), and the only remaining performance of Washington's own Palestrina Choir (June 11, 8 p.m.).
WORTH MENTIONING:
>> On Sunday (June 11, 6:30 p.m.) the National Gallery of Art hosts a free recital by pianist Sara Davis Buechner, and the free events are getting rarer and rarer. She will play music by Debussy, Friml, Gershwin, Mozart, and Munz.
>> If, like me, you missed Opera Bel Cantanti's production of Tchaikovsky's rarely heard opera Iolanta, you have two more chances to do so, with encore performances on Wednesday (June 7, 7:30 p.m.) at The Lyceum in Alexandria and on Friday (June 9, 7:30 p.m.) at La Maison Française here in Washington.
>> Finally, perhaps it is time that you got around to visiting the Kreeger Museum (2401 Foxhall Rd. NW). This Friday, for example, you could combine it with a concert (June 9, 7:30 p.m.) by the American Chamber Players (Miles Hoffman, artistic director), as part of the Kreeger Museum June Chamber Festival. For this first concert, they will play chamber works by Weber, Armand Merck, J. S. Bach, and Mozart. Tickets: $28.
>> For more concerts, go to Ionarts.