Classical Music Agenda
October is upon us and that means one important thing for classical music lovers on a budget: the return of one of the distinctive parts of Washington's musical life, a broad offering of free concerts.
Australian Chamber Orchestra
>> Kicking off a regular series on Sundays, the National Academy of Sciences (2101 Constitution Ave. NW) hosts a free concert by the Fry Street Quartet (October 4, 3 p.m.), playing quartets by Beethoven, Bartók, and Dvořák. To attend, you do not even need to make a reservation: just show up before the concert with a photo ID. The doors open a half-hour before the performance.
>> Included with the price of admission at the Phillips Collection (1600 21st St. NW) on most Sundays is a free concert in the museum's intimate Music Room, featuring flutist Anastasia Petanova and pianist Timothy Hoft next Sunday (October 4, 4 p.m.). Again, no reservation is required, but the limited amount of seating can fill up quickly.
>> The National Gallery of Art hosts a regular Sunday evening concert in the West Garden Court of the museum's West Building (use the entrance at 6th St. and Constitution Ave. NW), an odd venue with a sometimes frustrating acoustic and limited sight lines. Next Sunday (October 4, 6:30 p.m.) it will feature Arco Voce and soprano Rosa Lamoreaux in a program of Italian Renaissance music. Life is good: there are no reservations required here either, but early arrival is recommended to get a good seat.
>> One unusual free concert is offered by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the lovely Salon Doré on Saturday afternoon (October 3, 2 p.m.). The string trio known as Virginia Virtuosi will play works by Marais, Mozart, and Schubert.
WELCOME VISITORS:
>> The Australian Chamber Orchestra returns to Washington this week for the first time since a 2007 appearance, with two concerts at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Tuesday and Wednesday (September 29 and 30, 7:30 p.m.). The first program features more traditional repertoire, and the second includes selections of Arabic music and even rock, with oud player Joseph Tawadros and percussionist James Tawadros.
>> One of my favorite young string quartets, the Jupiter Quartet, returns to Washington next Sunday (October 4, 4 p.m.) for a concert at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. They will play quartets by Haydn and Beethoven, as well as Osvaldo Golijov's Yiddishbbuk: Inscriptions for String Quartet. Tickets are expensive at $45, but the Corcoran's Hammer Auditorium has one of the best acoustics in the city.
ALSO:
>> How often could one hear two examples of the nonet in the same evening? Give the Fessenden Ensemble a try as they play nonets by Martinů and Spohr to open their series at St. Columba's Church on Tuesday (September 29, 8 p.m.).
>> That trendy Calder Quartet brings their tour with rock musician Andrew W.K. to the Sixth and I Synagogue on Wednesday (September 30, 8 p.m.).
>> This week in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Iván Fischer opens the final season before Christoph Eschenbach's tenure as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra begins. The program combines Bartók music for the ballet The Wooden Prince, one of Fischer's specialties with his other group, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Beethoven's sixth symphony (October 1 to 3, various times).
>> The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will play Bartók's excellent Concerto for Orchestra this week, along with Tchaikovsky's violin concerto featuring soloist James Ehnes. The Thursday performance (October 1, 8 p.m.) is in the Music Center at Strathmore.
>> What are the odds that two orchestras would play Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra in the same weekend? The University of Maryland Symphony will combine it with music by Mozart and Christopher Rouse on Friday night (October 2, 8 p.m.) at the Clarice Smith Center in College Park.
>> The Folger Consort opens its season with a program called A Harmony of Friends: Music of Italy and China at the Folger Shakespeare Library (201 E. Capitol St. SE) with the angelic soprano (and, full disclosure, friend of the author) Elizabeth Hungerford (October 2 to 4, various times), as well as pipa player Yang Wei and soprano Jolle Greenleaf.
>> Washington's most famous musician, Plácido Domingo, will conduct a concert of arias and duets by Ildar Abdrazakov and Olga Borodina in the Kennedy Center Opera House on Saturday night (October 3, 7 p.m.).
>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.