Classical Music Agenda
This week the headline events are symphony orchestras playing the music of Gustav Mahler, which is not for everyone, but for those it is for, it is like a dream. Also high up on our recommended list are some free concerts: so get out there and listen to some music.
MAHLERMANIA:
>> The last visit by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, two years ago, was one of the high points of my season. This Sunday, Washington Performing Arts Society brings them back for a highly anticipated concert (February 3, 3 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Conductor Mariss Jansons (pictured) returns to Washington with another Strauss tone poem, Don Juan, and Mahler's fifth symphony. Only a few tickets remain.
>> A close second for Mahler lovers is this week's program from the National Symphony Orchestra, including Mahler's sixth symphony (January 31 to February 2). Leonard Slatkin does not have the same authority with Mahler as Mariss Jansons, but baritone Thomas Hampson singing the devastating song cycle Kindertotenlieder is an added incentive to find a seat in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $80 (students may be able to buy $10 tickets through the Attend! program, for the Thursday, January 31, performance only).
MAKE IT FREE:
>> On Monday (January 28, 7:30 p.m.), the Merlin Ensemble will give a free concert of music by Zemlinsky, Schoenberg, and others at the Embassy of Austria (RSVP to 202-895-6776 or rsvp@austria.org).
>> On Friday (February 1, 8 p.m.), Concerto Copenhagen will give a free concert at the Library of Congress. The Danish early music group will perform music by Bach, Handel, and their Danish contemporary, Johan Helmich Roman. There are no more tickets available from Ticketmaster, but you can wait on line the night of the concert to get an unused seat.
>> On Sunday (February 3, 4 p.m.), soprano Mari-Yan Pringle will give a free recital at the Phillips Collection. You still have to pay the price of admission to enter the museum.
>> Also on Sunday (February 3, 6:30 p.m.), the Hugo Wolf Quartet will play a free concert at the National Gallery of Art. Enter the museum by the Constitution Ave. entrance, at Sixth St. NW.
WORTH MENTION:
>> The Norwegian six-voice ensemble Nordic Voices will present a concert called From a Candlelit Renaissance Cathedral on the Dumbarton Concert Series on Saturday (February 2, 8 p.m.). The program includes Renaissance polyphony by Morales, Manchicourt, and others. Tickets: $30.
>> The violist of the Emerson Quartet, Lawrence Dutton, will give a concert on the Smithsonian Resident Associates. The program on Saturday (February 2, 6 p.m.) at the National Museum of Natural History will also feature violinist Elizabeth Lim-Dutton and pianist Marija Ilic with Dutton in sonatas by Mozart, Shostakovich, Hindemith, and Brahms. Tickets: $63.
>> The National Philharmonic will perform an all-Beethoven program (February 2, 8 p.m.; February 3, 3 p.m.) in the Music Center at Strathmore. That is not all that extraordinary, but hearing the Emperor Piano Concerto with Leon Fleisher should be worthwhile. Tickets: $29 to $79.
>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.