Classical Music Agenda
The Washington National Opera has come back to life for the spring half of its season, with a fine production of Britten's modern masterpiece Peter Grimes (three performances this week on March 23, 26, and 29) — see my review tomorrow for details. Here is the rest of what you might want to hear this week.
MODERN:
Bang on a Can All-Stars (photo by Nick Ruechel)
VOICE:
>> We have been very impressed with the soprano of Susanna Phillips, both on stage and in recital. On Thursday (March 26, 7:30 p.m.) the Vocal Arts Society is bringing her back for a solo recital with pianist Craig Terry at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Tickets: $45.
INSTRUMENTAL:
>> Vadim Repin has just made a recording of the Brahms violin concerto and is apparently performing the piece everywhere he can. This Thursday (March 26, 8 p.m.) he comes to the Music Center at Strathmore with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier (if you miss Repin's Brahms this time he will play the work again with the NSO this fall). This program also includes Prokofiev's fifth symphony, a proposition that was a lot more exciting with the originally scheduled conductor, Yuri Temirkanov. There are also performances in Baltimore (March 27 to 29).
>> If it's Prokofiev symphonies with Russian zing you want, then you will want to hear Valery Gergiev conduct the London Symphony Orchestra's concert sponsored by WPAS in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Saturday afternoon (March 28, 4 p.m.). The program includes Prokofiev's first and sixth symphonies, as well as Beethoven's fourth piano concerto with soloist Alexei Volodin. A few tickets remain but are fairly expensive.
KEYBOARD:
>> WPAS brings back American pianist Richard Goode for a Sunday afternoon recital of Bach and Chopin (March 29, 4 p.m.) in the Music Center at Strathmore.
>> Perhaps more interesting is the chance to hear Kevin Kenner, who won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw back in 1990, in a recital including works by Chopin the same afternoon (March 29, 5 p.m.) as part of the Embassy Series at La Maison Française. The $50 ticket includes a reception that is usually quite good.
MAKE IT FREE:
>> The 63rd American Music Festival will conclude this week at the National Gallery of Art, first with a free lunchtime recital by the New York Chamber Soloists in the West Building Lecture Hall on Wednesday (March 25, 12:10 p.m.), featuring music by Copland, Powell, Riegger, and Thompson. Then pianist Alan Mandel will give a recital on Sunday (March 29, 6:30 p.m.), playing his own music and works by Elie Siegmeister and other composers, in the same location.
>> On Thursday (March 26, 4 p.m.) Award-Winning Student Ambassadors from the Music Institute of Chicago will give a free performance at the Kreeger Museum.
>> The New Zealand String Quartet will give a free concert at the Library of Congress on Friday night (March 27, 8 p.m.), including a work that incorporates Maori music, performed by Richard Nunns on traditional instruments. If you do not arrange a reserved ticket in time, go early to wait for an unused seat.
>> Pianist Alon Goldstein plays a recital at the Phillips Collection on Sunday (March 29, 4 p.m.), free with the price of admission to the museum
ALSO:
>> On Monday (March 23, 7:30 p.m.) the Monument Piano Trio, a promising group from Baltimore, will give a concert in the Mansion at Strathmore, with an intriguing program of Shostakovich, Bloch, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and Paul Schoenfield.
>> There is only one way to find out if you could endure an entire concert of nothing but music for solo marimba — attend the Tuesday concert (March 24, 7:30 p.m.) by marimbist Pius Cheung, sponsored by the Young Concert Artists in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.
>> It must be a sign of bad financial times that a concert featuring two legendary, if slightly faded singers, Frederica von Stade and Samuel Ramey, singing mostly crowd-pleasing fluff has not sold out yet. It's a WPAS event on Wednesday (March 25, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.
>> Yes, a Handel oratorio other than Messiah! Bach Sinfonia will perform Handel's Israel in Egypt on Saturday night (March 28, 8 p.m.) in Silver Spring's Woodside United Methodist Church. Tickets: $28 to $15.