Classical Music Agenda

At the top of the agenda this week are two concerts of rarely heard Baroque music, very different from one another but both worth hearing. Many other options, including some excellent free concerts, come later.

>> The ensemble often thought to be the best American early music group, Cleveland-based Apollo's Fire, comes to Dumbarton Oaks next weekend (November 8 and 9). Jeannette Sorel's group will present a program called Mediterranean Nights, consisting of 17th-century dances and love ballads from Italy and Spain. Tickets to the Friends of Music series at Dumbarton Oaks are generally available only to those purchasing a subscription. Occasionally, if there are extra seats, they will be sold to non-subscribers in the week before the concert.

>> The name is similar, but the Apollo Ensemble is based in Amsterdam -- they will present a concert of Baroque rarities on Thursday night (November 5, 7:30 p.m.). This program of music for Jewish liturgical ceremonies or by Jewish composers is presented by Pro Musica Hebraica in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

>> One of the world's most exciting violinists, Vadim Repin, headlines the concerts by the National Symphony Orchestra this week (November 5 to 7). He will play the Brahms violin concerto, recently recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, and Alexander Vedernikov, former music director of the Bolshoi Theater, will also conduct Prokofiev's fifth symphony, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. If you are between the ages of 17 and 25, you may qualify for $10 tickets to the Thursday and Friday performances through the Kennedy Center's Attend program.

>> The Washington National Opera's American Ring Cycle, derailed by the financial crisis, comes to an anti-climactic conclusion this week with two concert performances of the cycle's final opera, Götterdämmerung (November 7, 5 p.m.; November 15, 2 p.m.). Any devoted Wagnerian will likely get over the disappointment and not be able to miss it: the cast includes Jon Fredric West (stepping in heroically as Siegfried), Iréne Theorin (returning as Brünnhilde), Alan Held (Gunther), Gidon Saks (Hagen), and Gordon Hawkins (Alberich).