 Composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) |
After a fairly calm week, there is one last gasp from the classical music world before summer really arrives. Next month, the concert schedule and your classical music agenda will go into vacation mode.
HEADLINES:
>> Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is one of those composers whose name is recognized by many people, but much of whose music is not well known. He has written more than just those few famous Finnish-themed tone poems, including a cycle of symphonies well worth knowing better. You have your chance this week when guest conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy leads an all-Sibelius program with the National Symphony Orchestra (May 29 to 31) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The program combines two of those symphonies, no. 1 and no. 7, as well as the tone poem The Oceanides. Tickets: $20 to $80 (full-time students are eligible to buy $10 tickets through the Attend! program, only at the box office and only for the Thursday and Friday concerts).
>> The Scandinavian theme continues with a concert on Friday (May 30, 7:30 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. It combines the Norwegian female vocal group Trio Mediaeval and the male vocal ensemble Cantus, founded at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, which is basically Scandinavia, eh? Tickets: $38 (already sold out).
>> Also part of the Kennedy Center’s A Cappella: Singing Solo festival is a concert on Saturday (May 31, 7:30 p.m.) by the Oxford-born vocal ensemble I Fagiolini in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The innovative program includes the group’s signature stagings (!) of Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces (Monteverdi and da Flecha), as well as modern ones (Poulenc’s Sept Chansons and Berio’s Cries of London). Tickets: $38.
FREE CONCERTS:
>> The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will play a free concert tomorrow (May 26, 6 p.m.) at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. It’s not the best place for listening, but it is free.
>> On Tuesday (May 27, 6 p.m.) pianist Lilia Stoytcheva plays a free concert at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.
>> The Pacifica Quartet returns to Washington to play more music by near-centenarian Elliott Carter, on Thursday’s tribute to the American composer (May 29, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress. If you cannot reserve a ticket through Ticketmaster, you can always arrive early and wait on line for an unused seat.
