Classical Music Agenda
J. S. Bach
EARLY MUSIC:
>> The Academy of Ancient Music, the historically informed performance ensemble that has just released a fine recording of the Brandenburg concertos, will play all six of these masterpieces by J. S. Bach this Sunday (March 22, 4 p.m.) at the George Mason University Center for the Arts, out in Fairfax. Tickets: $24 to $48.
>> Unfortunately for the local competition, the Washington Bach Consort's concert is the same afternoon (March 22, 3 p.m.), at National Presbyterian Church (4101 Nebraska Ave. NW). It's too bad, because they will be performing a rarely heard work, Bach's Great Organ Mass.
>> To hear a rarely performed work by Handel, the Brockes Passion, go to the concert by the Cantate Chamber Singers on Friday (March 20, 8 p.m.) at St. John's Norwood Parish in Chevy Chase, Md.
FREE OR ALMOST FREE:
>> This weekend is the return of the Schubert, Schubert, and Schubert festival, which is somehow managing to keep scraping by, financial crisis regardless. The non-profit organization sponsors an annual three-concert series (March 20, 21, and 22, 8 p.m.), bringing back the top-notch Auryn Quartet to Gaston Hall on the Georgetown campus. It's not all Schubert this year, and the Auryn will be joined, on the Friday and Saturday concerts, by pianist Menahem Pressler and double-bassist Anthony Manzo. Each concert costs $5, or you can buy a $10 pass to attend all three.
>> The Egidius Kwartet, a vocal quartet from the Netherlands, will give a free recital of Byrd, Dowland, Gastoldi, and other composers at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday (March 22, 6:30 p.m.). No ticket or reservation required.
>> If it's modern American music you want, take your lunch break to attend the free concert by the NGA String Quartet with pianist and composer Jessica Krash on Wednesday (March 18, 12:10 p.m.) in the National Gallery of Art's West Building Lecture Hall. The program includes the world premiere of a new work by Krash.
>> Also on Sunday (March 22, 4 p.m.) the Ensemble Gaudior gives a concert with a couple friends at the Phillips Collection, free with the price of admission.
>> The IBIS Chamber Music Society repeats its program of music by William Grant Still and William Alwyn, this time at the Church at Clarendon, in Arlington, on Sunday (March 22, 4 p.m.).
>> Finally, also on Sunday (March 22, 2 p.m.), the Friday Morning Music Club presents the first round of the Washington International Competition for Strings in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Free tickets will be distributed in front of the theater before the performance.
NOT FREE:
>> Guest conductor Herbert Blomstedt will be at the podium of the National Symphony Orchestra this week (March 19 to 21), conducting Bruckner's ninth symphony, as well as pianist Jonathan Biss in Mozart.
>> Pro Musica Hebraica presents the Biava Quartet on Thursday (March 19, 7:30 p.m.), playing a program of St. Petersburg Jewish composers at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets: $50.
>> The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will play Dvořák's 7th symphony and Chopin's first piano concert with soloist Lukáš Vondrácek, on Saturday (March 21, 8 p.m.) in the Music Center at Strathmore.
>> Lara St. John, the violinist known principally for having posed topless (well, partially covered by her violin) for an album cover, will be at the Barns at Wolf Trap (March 20, 8 p.m.). Tickets: $35.