This week's major events are all of the vocal variety, some accompanied by orchestra on a vast scale and others in more intimate settings. More options, including a bevy of free concerts, can be found after the jump. >> At the top of our list are the first National Symphony Orchestra concerts (October 16 to 18) conducted by the gifted Iván Fischer, featuring the third symphony of Gustav Mahler (pictured) in the Kennedy Center Concert......

The major events of this week's concert schedule are next weekend's twin concerts sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society. If the price tag is too high, there are plenty of free concerts to hear, too. THE BIG GUNS: >> Alluring German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (pictured) will officially open the WPAS fall season on Saturday night (October 11, 8 p.m.), in a concert with Camerata Salzburg. Her program at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall will include......

>> French pianist Hélène Grimaud (pictured) has been playing in our area about once a year recently, and she is back this week, with the National Symphony Orchestra (October 2 to 4). Guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya leads Grimaud in Beethoven's fourth piano concerto, as well as the Consecration of the House overture and Shostakovich's fifth symphony, in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $80, with reduced tickets possibly available to patrons ages 18......

The financial news is far from rosy, but there is good news this morning for the city's classical music lovers. It looked to be a rudderless, vanilla season for the National Symphony Orchestra, without a Music Director since the departure of Leonard Slatkin at the end of last season. But the NSO has just announced a September surprise: veteran conductor Christoph Eschenbach (pictured), most recently of the Philadelphia Orchestra, will be appointed Music Director for......

Photo of mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor by Dario Acosta>> Marin Alsop is in her second year as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. After a tour of all nine Beethoven symphonies last year, she will spend this season working her way through the music of her mentor, legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein. She opens the tribute this week with Bernstein's first symphony, "Jeremiah," matching it with Mahler's first symphony, sometimes known as the "Titan."......

In this week's agenda, the focus is on contemporary music. Earlier this week, the opening concert in the Mobtown Modern contemporary music series, at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, prompted us to think about concerts in Washington in the same vein. MAKE IT MODERN: >> The Corcoran Gallery of Art has the best concert acoustic in Washington in their semicircular hall, where pioneering French pianist Benoît Delbecq will give a recital on Wednesday (September 17,......

After lying dormant for most of the summer, the Classical Music Agenda stirs to life in the first week of September, as news of upcoming concerts filters into the mailbox. Washington offers an extraordinary number of free concerts most weeks, so we will start there. THE FREE KIND: >> You read earlier this week about the free simulcast of the opening night of Washington National Opera's production of La Traviata at Nationals Park (September 13,......

Dolora Zajick and Salvatore Licitra in Cavalleria Rusticana, Washington National Opera, photo by Leah L. JonesTo cap off its 2007-2008 season, the Washington National Opera is offering a boldly flavored, if hardly unusual digestif, a concert performance of Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. Shrewdly programmed concert performances of opera, like many of those offered by Washington Concert Opera, are opportunities to perform a relatively unknown works by a well-known composer (Rossini's Tancredi or Bianca e Falliero)......

Composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)After a fairly calm week, there is one last gasp from the classical music world before summer really arrives. Next month, the concert schedule and your classical music agenda will go into vacation mode. HEADLINES: >> Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is one of those composers whose name is recognized by many people, but much of whose music is not well known. He has written more than just those few famous Finnish-themed......

Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano (photo by Christian Steiner)With the Memorial Day holiday coming up, there is not much happening in classical music. It makes this week's agenda short and sweet, but a few events deserve your attention. HEADLINES: >> The bonus performances from Washington National Opera this week are devoted to a popular verismo opera, Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. Concert performances are scheduled for next Sunday (May 25, 2 p.m.) and the following Friday (May 30,......

Susan Bullock as Elektra, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)Washington National Opera opened its final production of the season on Saturday night, Richard Strauss's 1909 opera Elektra. This opera is in a sense an extension of the verismo style, just with a much better orchestral score and less vulgar melodies. It takes on ancient stories, from Greek mythology, and shockingly refracts them through the lens of modern psychology. Carl Jung used the......

eighth blackbirdAfter our recommendation of the National Symphony Orchestra's performance of David Del Tredici's Final Alice last week, it looks like another week of contemporary music awaits. If you think classical music is only about the reiteration of older music, think again. OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW: >> The modern music ensemble known as eighth blackbird will perform a program called The Only Moving Thing on Tuesday (May 13, 7:30 p.m.)......

Hila Plitmann, sopranoNext month, Leonard Slatkin will step down as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra. Assessments of his time in Washington have been mixed, but he has brought some interesting new music to the stage of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. At this week's concerts, Slatkin will conduct a ground-breaking American work from the 1970s, David Del Tredici's Final Alice. It is one distillation of the composer's career-long fascination with the story......

Violinist Hilary HahnIf you have waited until the last minute to think of something nice to do for your mom on Mother's Day next Sunday, what about taking her to a concert this week? There are even a few concerts on the day itself. INSTRUMENTS: >> Joining the National Symphony Orchestra this week is one of my favorite soloists, Baltimore-born violinist Hilary Hahn (May 8 to 10). Her contribution, Paganini's first violin concerto, will......

Plácido Domingo (Bajazet) in Tamerlano, Washington National Opera, 2008 (photo by Karin Cooper)For a few years, reports have been coming from Europe of major opera houses pairing up with historically informed performance (HIP) ensembles to present Baroque operas. Such residencies combine the staging power of a full-time opera company, as well as major opera singers, with the musical specialization of a well-established early music group and its regular conductor. Washington National Opera experimented with......

Photo of Plácido Domingo by Alexander ZetlitzAfter a very busy month of April, the concert schedule thins out slightly this week. Even so, there are some major events to look forward to and some free concerts to round out the week. OPERA: >> Plácido Domingo will retire from the stage eventually, if not this season, and the chance to hear the legendary tenor should not be missed. He will be starring in the Washington......

This is another week filled with excellent pianists visiting Washington, and there are concerts a-plenty of all kinds, including some very good free ones. RECOMMENDED: >> Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes (pictured) is a smart and talented musician, but he also has a flair for the unusual. Last year, to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Edvard Grieg, Andsnes had a grand piano hauled up to the top of a Norwegian mountain to......

Leading the recommendations this week are the free concerts, which also happen to be the best events on the calendar. If you insist on paying money for your music this week, read through to the end. FREE, FREE, FREE: >> One of the best historically informed performance ensembles in the world, Europa Galante (pictured), will give a concert with their leader, violinist Fabio Biondi, on Wednesday (April 16, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress.......

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported this week that the music director of Pittsburgh Opera, Antony Walker (pictured), conducted a performance of Aida. Not only that, but he simultaneously sang the role of Radames from the podium in the last act, replacing an indisposed tenor. The lead recommendation this week gives you a chance to see Walker in action (hopefully only conducting), as he is also the music director of our own Washington Concert Opera. HEADLINES: >>......

Carlos Álvarez as Rigoletto, Washington National Opera, 2008, photo by Karin CooperRigoletto, premiered at Venice's Teatro La Fenice in 1851, is generally named as the first instance of Giuseppe Verdi's mature compositional voice. In terms of dramatic cohesion and musical sophistication, it is light years ahead of Ernani, an opera from 1844 with a remarkably similar background (the same librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, adapted a play by Victor Hugo for both operas, and both......

This is going to be a good week for serious listening, the beginning of the onslaught of end-of-the-season events that will take us into summer. Since April is Take a Friend to the Orchestra Month, you should start laying plans to take a classical newbie with you to a concert this month. The first recommendation below would be an excellent opportunity to do your part to rejuvenate the classical music audience. HEADLINES: Iván Fischer, Principal......

Alan Held and the Zombie Brides in The Flying Dutchman, Washington National Opera, 2008, photo by Karin CooperOn Saturday night Washington National Opera returned to the stage of the Kennedy Center Opera House, with a production of Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer. Wagner wrote his own libretto, drawing on a folk legend retold in a Heinrich Heine novella. The Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship, and its unnamed Dutch captain is condemned, because of......

With Easter coming up and lots of people leaving town, there are still a surprising number of concerts on the schedule. If you are sticking around, a free concert especially could be just the thing to do with your free time. LIVING LEGEND: >> Without question, the major event of the week, and probably the entire season, is the farewell concert of Alfred Brendel (pictured) tomorrow night (March 17, 8 p.m.), sponsored by Washington Performing......

Last month, Washington's classical music scene was inundated by string quartets, and this week it is a plague of pianists, all of whom are of major stature and most of whom all serious listeners will want to hear. Also, we go back to the opera. AT THE BENCH: >> The most famous, in terms of sheer star power, is probably Chinese pianist Lang Lang, he of the leather pants and spiky hair. Washington Performing Arts......

Dominick Argento and J. Reilly Lewis, photo courtesy of Cathedral Choral SocietyWashington National Cathedral celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, on September 29, the date that the cornerstone was laid in 1907. To celebrate the centenary, the Cathedral Choral Society presented a commissioned work on Sunday afternoon, a new oratorio by American composer Dominick Argento. Having recently watched his wife die of an undiagnosable neurological ailment and also having turned 80 himself, Argento thought......

On the British television show Britain's Got Talent last year, a Welsh cell phone salesman and amateur opera singer named Paul Potts sang the aria Nessun dorma. Many people have since seen the video of that show, which has launched Potts' career. He is coming to Washington this week, to sing a recital at Lisner Auditorium (March 3, 8 p.m.). Even with tickets at $42.50, it has already almost sold out. While the pop culture......

This week does not have one particular concert that stands out as the most exciting, but there are events of every kind that merit your attention. The problem will be choosing what to attend. CHORAL: >> Visiting Washington this week are the Tallis Scholars (pictured), one of the world's foremost early music choral ensembles. They will perform masterpieces from Spain and Portugal at the Clarice Smith Center on Sunday evening (March 2, 7:30 p.m.), culminating......

The holiday tomorrow means that not much is happening until the latter part of the week, but when it gets going, the schedule has some excellent listening to offer. HEADLINES: >> One of the world's best string quartets, the Takács Quartet (pictured), will give a concert on Friday (February 22, 8 p.m.) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The program combines some of the group's specialties, with quartets by Haydn (op. 74, no. 2), Bartók......

From this point until the summer, the classical music concert schedule is going to be very busy. Even if you, like me, keep your week full of music, there are some tough choices to make. HEADLINES: >> The Juilliard String Quartet, a venerable American institution, has long been in residence at the Library of Congress, but we have not heard them in Washington since 2006 since that residency was extended to the rest of the......

This week offers many excellent concerts for your listening schedule, but most of them are piled up in a lopsided way at the end of the week. For someone with my tastes, it is shaping up to be a weekend dedicated to Baroque music by historically informed performance (HIP) ensembles. HIP: >> Likely the best concert of the week is also free, the one featuring French HIP group Ensemble Matheus at the Library of Congress......