>> French pianist Hélène Grimaud (pictured) has been playing in our area about once a year recently, and she is back this week, with the National Symphony Orchestra (October 2 to 4). Guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads Grimaud in Beethoven's fourth piano concerto, as well as the Consecration of the House overture and Shostakovich's fifth symphony, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $80, with reduced tickets possibly available to patrons ages 18 to 25 (you now have to register with the Attend! program).

>> The New York Philharmonic comes back to town on Saturday (October 4, 4 p.m.), sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society. Outgoing music director Lorin Maazel, taking a victory lap on this tour, will lead an all-Tchaikovsky program in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, but we'll still be there.

>> On Sunday (October 5, 5:30 p.m.), a trip to Baltimore is in our future, to listen to Leon Fleisher's 80th Birthday Celebration. Pianists Jonathan Biss, Yefim Bronfman, and Katherine Jacobson Fleisher will join Fleisher, who taught all of them, at Shriver Hall on the campus of Johns Hopkins University.

>> If Baltimore is out of the question, you have another Sunday choice (October 5, 2 p.m.) in the season's first concert by the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The program, played by principal musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra, includes a Beethoven serenade for string trio, as well as a Shostakovich piano trio (no. 1) and piano quintet (G minor, op. 57). Tickets: $35.

>> A final concert makes the headlines this week, although it may be too strange for some listeners. On Tuesday night (September 30, 7 p.m.) avant-garde sound artist Bernhard Gal will take part in the Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music at Silver Spring's Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.

THE FREE KIND:
>> At the Church of the Epiphany's noonday series on Tuesday (September 30, 12:10 p.m.), there will be a recital by tenor Tom Gallagher J. Reilly Lewis at the keyboard.

>> The NSO Chamber Ensemble will perform the world premieres of commissioned works on Tuesday (September 30, 6 p.m.) at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, a free concert as part of the Millennium Stage series.

>> The museum series of free concerts begin this week, with pianist Trefor Smith at the Phillips Collection on Sunday (October 5, 4 p.m.).

>> A group called )musica(aperta opens the free series at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday (October 5, 6:30 p.m.), with a program devoted to mysticism in Spanish Renaissance music.

ALSO:
>> The University of Maryland Symphony and Wind Orchestra play on Friday night (October 3, 8 p.m.), with pianist Larissa Dedova, at the Clarice Smith Center in College Park.

>> The Countertop Ensemble and Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble perform a program called Venice's Musical Circle on Saturday (October 4, 7:30 p.m.) at Universalist National Memorial Church (1810 16th St. NW).

>> The National Philharmonic will perform Beethoven's 9th symphony in the Music Center at Strathmore on Saturday (October 4, 8 p.m.) and Sunday (October 5, 3 p.m.).

>> On Sunday (October 5, 4 p.m.) the Amadeus Orchestra plays a program called Haydn and His Circle with pianist Jeffrey Chappell on the Amadeus Concerts series at St. Luke Catholic Church out in McLean.

>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.