There is some excellent classical music to be heard this week, before the Inauguration Madness shuts down the District of Columbia.
TOP PICKS:
>> One of the best concerts on the National Symphony Orchestra’s season is scheduled for this week (January 15 to 17). A favorite pianist, Leif Ove Andsnes (pictured), will work his magic with Rachmaninov’s third concerto, and a rising young conductor, Ilan Volkov, pairs that with two much less-known and, actually, more interesting works, Stravinsky’s Jeu de cartes and Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape. Tickets: $20 to $80. Those ages 17 to 25 can register with the Attend! program to have a chance to buy reduced-price tickets to all events at the Kennedy Center.
>> You may know Philip Glass from his scores for films like Koyaanisqatsi or, more recently, Notes on a Scandal. It is rare enough to have the chance to hear one of his operas, and most rare to hear a lesser-known opera like Hydrogen Jukebox. This chamber opera was a late 1980s collaboration between Glass and poet Allen Ginsberg, conceived as “a portrait of America that cover’s the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.” The adventurous American Opera Theater will mount the opera, in collaboration with Georgetown University, this weekend at Davis Performing Arts Center (January 16 to 18). Tickets: $25 (students, $5).
MAKE IT FREE:
>> The monthly series of free concerts at the National Academy of Sciences returns this Sunday with a concert by the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio (January 18, 3 p.m.). No ticket is required, but you are advised to arrive at the NAS auditorium (2101 Constitution Ave. NW) by 2:30 p.m. to get a good seat.
>> Cellist Amit Peled concludes his series of three concerts on the free weekly series at the Phillips Collection (January 18, 4 p.m.). As always, the free concert is part of the price of admission to the museum.
>> The free weekly concert series at the National Gallery of Art will feature the NGA Orchestra this week (January 18, 6:30 p.m.), with guest conductor Kenneth Slowik. This concert is part of the Mendelssohn on the Mall series, celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn.
