Classical Music Agenda
Some of January's most glamorous and worthwhile concerts are happening this weekend. The problem will be how to decide what to attend -- here is what we recommend.
HEADLINERS:
>> For star power this month it is hard to beat the exclusive appearance of Anne-Sophie Mutter (pictured at right) with her ex-husband André Previn on the podium, with the National Symphony Orchestra on Saturday (January 31, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Most importantly, it will offer a chance to hear Previn's Double Concerto for Violin and Contrabass, with Mutter and the Slovakian bassist Roman Patkoló, who premiered the work together in 2007. Mutter will also play Mozart's third violin concerto, and there will be Haydn's "London" Symphony to kick off the Haydn Year. Tickets: $20 to $85.
>> For another kind of premiere, Opera Lafayette will give a rare modern revival of Le Déserteur, an opéra-comique by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Thursday (January 29, 7:30 p.m.). Tickets: $60. For those looking to take less of a financial hit, you can also attend the Community and Family Perfomance of the work on Saturday afternoon (January 31, 2 p.m.) at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St. NE). Tickets are $2 for adults and free for children.
>> The Mark Morris Dance Group returns to the Kennedy Center, to present its production of Mozart Dances in the Eisenhower Theater this week (January 29 to 31, 8 p.m.). The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will provide the music, two Mozart piano concertos (K. 413 and 595), with -- notably -- pianists Ursula Oppens (who released a winning Elliott Carter disc last year) and Amy Briggs, who will also perform the D major sonata for two pianos (K. 448). Tickets: $22 to $65.
>> For chamber music, top pick goes to the latest concert by the Emerson Quartet in their Smithsonian Resident Associates series at the National Museum of Natural History (10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW), on Saturday (January 31, 6 p.m.). Start the Haydn Year off right with this ingenious program that alternates the three string quartets of Haydn's op. 74 with Dvořák's Cypřiše (Cypresses), divided into three parts. Tickets: $63.
MAKE IT FREE:
>> Members of Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program will give a free recital of popular opera scenes on Tuesday (January 27, 6 p.m.) on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
>> Baritone Ryan de Ryke and pianist Daniel Schlosberg will perform on Sunday (February 1, 4 p.m.) at the Phillips Collection.
>> At the National Gallery of Art there will be a free recital by pianist Ulrich Urban on Sunday (February 1, 6:30 p.m.), playing a program devoted to the music of Felix Mendelssohn.
FURTHERMORE:
>> On Tuesday (January 27, 8 p.m.) the Fessenden Ensemble will perform music by Handel, Mozart, and Parry at St. Columba's Church (4201 Albemarle St. NW).
>> The Miró Quartet will perform on Friday night (January 30, 8 p.m.) in the Barns at Wolf Trap.
>> On Saturday (January 31, 7 p.m.) the Post-Classical Ensemble offers an intriguing program called Copland and the Cold War at Georgetown University's Davis Performing Arts Center. Copland's music will be framed by a re-enactment of Copland's testimony before Senator Joseph McCarthy's Subcommittee on Special Investigations.
>> Soprano Sarah Coburn and tenor Lawrence Brownlee will pair up for the latest recital presented by Vocal Arts Society in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Saturday (January 31, 7:30 p.m.). Martin Katz will accompany on the piano.