If you are looking for a musical way to celebrate Veterans Day, the Washington Chorus will perform its annual Tribute and Reflection concert this afternoon (November 11, 3 p.m.), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (tickets: $15 to $55). Their program includes Joseph Haydn’s martial Mass in Time of War. Although there are not that many classical music concerts in the early part of the week, the schedule for next weekend is about as full as it could be, with far too much music for one pair of ears to hear. Just how we like it.
HEADLINES:
>> The biggest name of the week is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will give a recital on Monday evening (November 12, 8 p.m.), with pianist Kathryn Stott (piano), in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. This program, sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society and long since sold out, features three important sonatas for the instrument, by Schubert (the “Arpeggione,” D. 821), Shostakovich (D minor, op. 40), and Franck (A major). Some amuse-gueules by Piazzolla and Gismonti are thrown in for some extra flavor. Beg, borrow, or steal to get yourself in the door.
>> A less media-saturated but also excellent cellist, Heinrich Schiff, will be the featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra this week (November 15 to 17), playing Shostakovich’s first cello concerto. Guest conductor Roberto Minczuk bookends it with the worthy Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca by Revueltas and an audience favorite, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. Tickets: $20 to $80 (student tickets for $10, through the Attend! program, for the November 16 performance only).
>> Violist Kim Kashkashian will give a recital on Sunday (November 18, 4 p.m.) with pianist Lydia Artymiw. This is the second concert in what is regrettably the last season of the concert series sponsored by the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences, at Congregation Beth-El in Bethesda. Tickets: $30 (students, $12).
>> Perhaps the most exciting event of the week, however, is a free concert. An ensemble called red fish blue fish will perform the world premiere of a new work by Detroit-born composer Roger Reynolds, Sanctuary, on Sunday (November 18, 6:30 p.m.) at the National Gallery of Art (East Building, Ground Level). The Library of Congress has an online exhibit of materials relating to the composer, the only living composer so featured on their Web site.
