Well, Washington, we are now two weeks into Christmas Concert Hell, and it’s only going to get worse. Non-holiday programs will increasingly be edged out by holiday ones, but this does not mean that there will be no good concerts to be heard, of either kind. Let DCist be your guide. We are planning to take some time off from the Classical Music Agenda for the holiday break: for concert information, read our Classical Week in Washington at Ionarts. We’ll see you again in January!
FREE OR ALMOST:
>> Top billing this week goes to the concert this Friday (December 16, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress, for the anniversary of the donation of a set of priceless, full-blooded Stradivari string instruments to the Library’s collection. The young and excellent Jupiter String Quartet will have the chance to play those matchless historic instruments in a program of music by Haydn (“Sunrise” quartet), Dutilleux (Ainsi la nuit), and Beethoven (op. 59, no. 1). We heard this foursome at the Corcoran in October and were mightily impressed. As a bonus part of this concert, jazz-classical-hybrid composer Gunther Schuller will accept his award as a Library of Congress Living Legend. He is 80 years old this year.
>> On Sunday (December 18, 6:30 p.m.), the Suspicious Cheese Lords — yes, it’s a crazy name for a group of men who sing early music — will present a free concert of Renaissance and Baroque Christmas music at the National Gallery of Art. We expect this to be one of the lovelier Christmas concerts this year.
>> It’s not free, but on Tuesday (December 13, 8 p.m.) there is an extraordinary concert planned to celebrate the Juilliard School of Music’s Centennial Anniversary. The Juilliard School Orchestra will join forces with Washington’s own Cathedral Choral Society and National Cathedral School Choirs in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall to perform Mahler’s third symphony. Tickets ranging from $20 to only $28 will guarantee you, for this event only, some of the best seats there. James Conlon, who is in the midst of conducting a new opera at the Met right now, will take the podium, and according to one local Mahlerian, the results should be fine.
