James Levine, the renowned music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, took over at the podium of the Boston Symphony Orchestra recently and has brought that group significant national attention with his daring programming. The Boston Symphony comes to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this Saturday (March 11, 4:30 p.m.) for a concert that we have no business recommending because it is already sold out. (Recently injured in an onstage fall, Levine will not conduct this concert and will be replaced by David Robertson.) Characteristically, Levine has juxtaposed orchestral classics, Strauss and Beethoven’s great seventh symphony, with two works by living composers, Elliott Carter and Peter Lieberson. The latter’s new cycle of Neruda Songs was premiered in Boston last fall, with the composer’s wife, acclaimed mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, singing. Given Hunt Lieberson’s recent spate of cancellations due to health problems — officially, back injuries, but suspected by many to be a return of the cancer that was in remission — it is anyone’s guess whether she will actually perform this weekend. We will let you know in our review.

FREE, FREE, FREE:
>> The other big news this week is that you could almost fill up your classical music schedule with free concerts, beginning with what promises to be a spectacular concert on Friday (March 10, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress. Highly esteemed tenor Ian Bostridge will join pianist Julius Drake and the Belcea Quartet in performances of Fauré’s La bonne chanson, op. 61, Shostakovich’s third string quartet, and the Vaughan Williams On Wenlock Edge. You can reserve a place through Ticketmaster, with the usual fees, or arrive early and hope for an unclaimed seat.