Over the next couple weeks, classical music fans, the last few concert series and performing groups will begin their regular seasons. When there is an abundance of things to hear, we try to select the best of them for this weekly post. As always, you can find a complete concert listing, each week in the Classical Music in Washington feature at Ionarts. Looking ahead, our complete listing for the month of October is full of many good things to hear.

ORCHESTRAS WITH SOLOISTS:
>> We are lucky in Washington to be able to hear concerts by many different symphony orchestras, the two best being the National Symphony and, at Strathmore, the Baltimore Symphony, which opened their new season with an incredible performance of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Turkish pianist Fazil Say. (We recommended it in last week’s agenda, and this DCist was at Strathmore to hear it on Saturday night.) The BSO will be performing twice this week at the Music Center at Strathmore, first on Thursday (September 29, 8 p.m.) for a program called Spanish Sensation. Juanjo Mena will be guest conductor for a program that opens with Joáquin Rodrigo’s Fantasia para un Gentilhombre, featuring the orchestra’s principal flutist, Emily Skala, on the solo part. Then on Saturday (October 1, at the unusual time of 11 a.m.), the BSO will perform The Promise of Youth, with soloist Kirill Gerstein at the piano for the very demanding first concerto by Mendelssohn.

>> If you can’t bear the commute up to North Bethesda, go to the Kennedy Center instead, where cellist Truls Mørk will play Elgar’s E minor concerto with the National Symphony. The program includes the rarely heard “Mysterious Mountain” symphony by 20th-century composer Alan Hovhaness. Performances are scheduled for Thursday (September 29, 7 p.m.), Friday (September 30, 8 p.m.), and Saturday (October 1, 8 p.m.) at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets start at $20.

What about DCists who want to hear something for free?