Classical Music Agenda
This week offers many excellent concerts for your listening schedule, but most of them are piled up in a lopsided way at the end of the week. For someone with my tastes, it is shaping up to be a weekend dedicated to Baroque music by historically informed performance (HIP) ensembles.
HIP:
>> Likely the best concert of the week is also free, the one featuring French HIP group Ensemble Matheus at the Library of Congress on Saturday night (February 9, 8 p.m.). Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore (pictured) will join for a blockbuster program of Handel, Gluck, and Vivaldi. Their recordings indicate that this is one not to miss. Reserved seats are already long gone, but you can arrive early and wait on line for an unused ticket.
>> A close second is the Toronto-based HIP ensemble Tafelmusik, who will play a concert in the Barns at Wolf Trap on Friday (February 8, 8 p.m.). Selections of music by Baroque greats (Rameau, Lully, Purcell, Marais) will be interspersed with corresponding mythological readings from Ovid by actor R. H. Thomson. Tickets: $30.
>> Finally, the Orchestra of New Spain will present another free concert at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday (February 10, 6:30 p.m.). The program consists of 18th-century music from the Spanish royal court, which will resound in the resonant space of the West Garden Court. Doors open at 6 p.m., at the Constitution Ave. entrance at Sixth St. NW.
MORE FREE CONCERTS:
>> Guitarist Richard Miller will play a free recital on the Friday concert series hosted by Georgetown University in McNeir Hall (February 8, 1:15 p.m.).
>> Thanks to Shriver Hall, Turkish cellist Efe Baltacigil and pianist Anna Polonsky will give a free concert at the Baltimore Museum of Art on Saturday (February 9, 3 p.m.) that should be worth the trip to Charm City.
>> Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, harpist Anna Reinersman, and pianist Craig Ketter will play a free concert at the National Academy of Sciences on Sunday afternoon (February 10, 3 p.m.). You can attend without a reservation, but early arrival is recommended to find a good seat.
>> On the free concert series at the Phillips Collection, it will be a duo piano recital by Maurizio Moretti and Angela Oliviero on Sunday (February 10, 4 p.m.). Admission to the museum is not free.
ALSO WORTH MENTION:
>> The Trio con Brio Copenhagen plays Haydn, Brahms, and Ravel at the Clarice Smith Center on Wednesday (February 6, 8 p.m.). Tickets: $35 (students, $7).
>> Washington Performing Arts Society presents the brother-sister duo of violinist Gil Shaham and pianist Orli Shaham for a concert in the Music Center at Strathmore Friday night (February 8, 8 p.m.). The program includes relative rareties by Szymanoski (Mythes, op. 30), Bartók, and Prokofiev. Tickets: $25 to $70.
>> The Kennedy Center's Japan! festival gets under way this week. The first concert event of note is a Tribute to Tōru Takemitsu in the Terrace Theater on Saturday (February 9, 7:30 p.m.). Tickets: $35.
>> To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, local choral group Chantry will present an all-Victoria program of double-choir music in devotion to Mary (February 9, 8 p.m.) in the lovely acoustic of St. Mary Mother of God (727 Fifth St. NW). Tickets: $30.
>> The latest concert by the Contemporary Music Forum will take place at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on Sunday afternoon (February 10, 4:30 p.m.). Tickets: $20.
>> Pianist Jean-Frédéric Neuburger will join with members of the Amedeo Modigliani Quartet for a concert of Debussy, Shostakovich, and Schumann on Sunday (February 10, 8 p.m.), sponsored by Young Concert Artists in the Clarice Smith Center. Tickets: $30 (students, $10).
>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.