Classical Music Agenda
Pianist Murray Perahia
>> Of the many alluring keyboard concerts on the schedule this week, none is bigger than the next area recital of American pianist Murray Perahia, sponsored by WPAS in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Saturday afternoon (October 17, 4 p.m.). As I wrote of Perahia's 2007 recital at Strathmore, no real fan of the keyboard is likely to miss the opportunity to hear him play. The program includes the chance to hear one of the selections from his latest CD of Bach partitas.
>> The other end of the keyboard's historical spectrum is represented by a recital of French harpsichordist Blandine Rannou on Tuesday night (October 13, 7:30 p.m.) at La Maison Française (4101 Reservoir Rd. NW). She is not well known on this side of the Atlantic yet, but she will play music by the Couperins, Forqueray, Balbastre — the grand siècle repertoire featured on her recordings, which have been critically lauded in France. Tickets: $20 (students, $15).
>> In a rather different take on historical repertoire, pianist Christopher Taylor will give a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations on Wednesday evening (October 14, 7:30 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The twist is that he will play on a Steinway Double-Register Moór Concert Grand, a grand piano with a double keyboard, an attempt to reproduce the harpsichord's ability to switch quickly between registrations.
>> Shifting from the old to the new, pianist Christopher O'Riley, the host of NPR's From the Top, will play his famous arrangements of Radiohead and Nirvana in the Barns at Wolf Trap on Saturday night (October 17, 7:30 p.m.).
STRING QUARTETS:
>> The Chiara Quartet will play two concerts in the area this week, a free lunchtime concert (October 14, 12:10 p.m.) of quartets by Debussy, Prokofiev, and Webern at the National Gallery of Art (West Building, ground floor lecture hall) and a slightly different program on Friday (October 16, 7:30 p.m.) at the Strathmore Mansion.
>> The young British group the Carducci Quartet plays a concert on Friday (October 16, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress, with music by Haydn, Beethoven, and Moeran. There are no more reserved tickets available, but if you show up early, you have a very good chance of getting an unused seat.
MAKE IT FREE:
>> If you missed the Bach Consort's noontime Bach cantata this month, there is also a Bach Cantata Series at the Clarice Smith Center in College Park, with a free performance on Thursday (October 15, 1:30 p.m.) of Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 1), conducted by Michael Ingram.
>> The pile-up of free concerts on Sunday continues with the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra's free concert of music by Shostakovich, Mozart, and Barnett at Alexandria's Bishop Ireton High School (October 18, 3 p.m.).
>> Included with the price of admission to the Phillips Collection on Sunday is a free concert by the Raphael Trio (October 18, 4 p.m.).
>> At the National Gallery of Art's series of free concerts the National Gallery Piano Trio will play a program of trios by Franck, Jongen, and other Belgian composers (October 18, 6:30 p.m.), in the West Garden Court of the museum's West Building.
ALSO:
>> Lorin Maazel takes over the podium of the National Symphony Orchestra this week (October 15 to 17, various times), with a program that combines an old favorite, Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, with some unexpected works. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg appears as soloist in Barber's Violin Concerto.
>> For more concert information, go to Ionarts.