Some of January’s most glamorous and worthwhile concerts are happening this weekend. The problem will be how to decide what to attend — here is what we recommend.
HEADLINERS:
>> For star power this month it is hard to beat the exclusive appearance of Anne-Sophie Mutter (pictured at right) with her ex-husband André Previn on the podium, with the National Symphony Orchestra on Saturday (January 31, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Most importantly, it will offer a chance to hear Previn’s Double Concerto for Violin and Contrabass, with Mutter and the Slovakian bassist Roman Patkoló, who premiered the work together in 2007. Mutter will also play Mozart’s third violin concerto, and there will be Haydn’s “London” Symphony to kick off the Haydn Year. Tickets: $20 to $85.
>> For another kind of premiere, Opera Lafayette will give a rare modern revival of Le Déserteur, an opéra-comique by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Thursday (January 29, 7:30 p.m.). Tickets: $60. For those looking to take less of a financial hit, you can also attend the Community and Family Perfomance of the work on Saturday afternoon (January 31, 2 p.m.) at the Atlas Performing Arts Center (1333 H St. NE). Tickets are $2 for adults and free for children.
>> The Mark Morris Dance Group returns to the Kennedy Center, to present its production of Mozart Dances in the Eisenhower Theater this week (January 29 to 31, 8 p.m.). The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will provide the music, two Mozart piano concertos (K. 413 and 595), with — notably — pianists Ursula Oppens (who released a winning Elliott Carter disc last year) and Amy Briggs, who will also perform the D major sonata for two pianos (K. 448). Tickets: $22 to $65.
>> For chamber music, top pick goes to the latest concert by the Emerson Quartet in their Smithsonian Resident Associates series at the National Museum of Natural History (10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW), on Saturday (January 31, 6 p.m.). Start the Haydn Year off right with this ingenious program that alternates the three string quartets of Haydn’s op. 74 with Dvořák’s Cypřiše (Cypresses), divided into three parts. Tickets: $63.
