Well, it’s almost June now, which means that most of the free concert series have ended. There are still some good things to hear this coming month, although you will have to pay for them. Concerts will start to trickle off as summer gets hotter, so take your friend and hear some music.
THE BIG GUNS:
>> This week Kurt Masur appears for the first time as guest conductor with the National Symphony, in an all-Beethoven program. This concert will combine the Leonore Overture with two symphonies, the first and seventh. The latter is a personal favorite, perhaps the best traditional classical symphony in the repertoire. Concerts are scheduled for Thursday (June 1, 7 p.m.), Friday (June 2, 1:30 p.m.), and Saturday (June 3, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets: $20 to $79.
>> At the same time, Opera Lafayette will be performing a semi-concert version of Mozart’s lesser-known opera Idomeneo. There are two performances, on Friday (June 2, 7:30 p.m.) and Saturday (June 3, 7:30 p.m.), in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park. Tickets: $25 to $45 (students, only $7). This marks the beginning of this year’s installment of the Washington Early Music Festival, about which I will be saying more later.
