Classical Music Agenda
This week you could be a busy classical listener, and hearing a concert almost every day, sometimes twice, without paying anything. The problem is that not all free concerts are equally strong, but who can complain about hearing music for free?
MONDAY:
>> The women of the Salem Academy Glee Club will give a free lunchtime concert (February 26, 12:10 p.m.) at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The program will consist of sacred and secular women's choral literature, sung in a variety of languages.
>> That evening (February 26, 7:30 p.m.), the Choral Arts Society of Washington will give a free concert of French chansons at the French Embassy, La Maison Française (4101 Reservoir Rd. NW). Seating is limited, and you must make a reservation. A light reception will follow.
>> If instrumental music is what you want, head over to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, where violinist Elisabeth Adkins (associate concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra) and pianist Edward Newman will give a free concert (February 26, 8 p.m.) of music by Debussy, Strauss, and Rozsa.
WEDNESDAY:
>> The Austrian string quartet Artis-Quartett Wien will give a free concert (February 28, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress. Their program includes music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and the East Coast premiere of a new string quartet by Virginia-born composer Tania French. If you would like to see a living, breathing composer in person, attend the pre-concert discussion at 6:15 p.m.
>> For a program combining classical and jazz music, try the free recital by trumpeter Chris Gekker (February 28, 8 p.m.), at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park.
FRIDAY:
>> In a week for Austrian string quartets, the Aron Quartett will also give a free recital (March 2, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress. Their remarkable program will feature quartets by Viennese composers Haydn, Schoenberg,and Korngold. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Korngold's death.
SUNDAY
>> If band music is your thing, the UNC Greensboro Wind Ensemble will play a free concert (March 4, 3 p.m.) at the Music Center at Strathmore.
>> The Piano Society of Greater Washington will host their March Recital on Sunday (March 4, 3 p.m.), at Calvary Lutheran Church in Silver Spring. All the performing members of the group are devoted amateur pianists.
>> The Verdehr Trio (a clarinetist, violinist, and pianist from Michigan State University) makes their annual stop in Washington for a free recital (March 4, 4 p.m.) at the Phillips Collection. Note that admission to get into the museum is not free.
>> The Contemporary Music Forum will give another inventive program of unusual modern music (March 4, 6:30 p.m.), this time for free at the National Gallery of Art. This recital, devoted to the ever-challenging music of American composer John Cage, will conclude the NGA's 62nd American Music Festival.
NOT FREE:
>> The local a cappella vocal ensemble that goes by the name of the Countertop Quartet will give a concert on Friday (March 2, 8 p.m.) called "Sweet is the Song: Music in Praise of Women," at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria.
>> More modern music is offered by the Left Bank Concert Society on Saturday (March 3, 8 p.m.), in their concert at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park. The program combines Dutilleux's Ainsi la nuit for string quartet, Biber's Mystery Sonata for violin and Sonata for 6 Trumpets, timpani, and organ, and Messiaen's apocalyptic Quartet for the End of Time. That's a good program.
>> Riccardo Chailly will conduct the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig in a concert on Saturday (March 3, 8 p.m.) at the George Mason University Center for the Arts, way out in Fairfax. Virtuoso pianist Yundi Li will play Liszt's first piano concerto, a devilish and bombastic work he has just recorded, alongside two tone poems by Richard Strauss, Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben. That is also quite a program.
>> If it's Latin American sounds you want, the Metropolitan Chorus's latest concert (March 4, 3 p.m.) will feature Mass settings by Carlos Fonseca and Ariel Ramierez. This will take place at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington.
>> The Cathedral Choral Society will join forces with the vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 for a concert (March 4, 4 p.m.) including a rare performance of Randall Thompson's Peaceable Kingdom at Washington National Cathedral.
>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.