Julia Fischer, violinist

This is going to be a good week for classical music, with a concert by a major visiting artist or ensemble just about every day. There are even some excellent free concerts, listed after the jump. Will anyone but your faithful music critic be able to hear it all?

HEADLINES:
>> For my money, Julia Fischer is the best violinist of her generation, the optimal combination of blistering technique and intelligent musicianship. She will bring some of the Bach concertos from her new recording with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields to the Music Center at Strathmore on Tuesday (February 24, 8 p.m.). Tickets: $38 to $78.

>> The last time that Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin came to town, two years ago, the wildly cheering audience coaxed eight encores from him. Kissin’s recital on Sunday afternoon (March 1, 4 p.m.), sponsored by Washington Performing Arts Society at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, is an event that no lover of piano music will want to miss, especially since it will include so much of Kissin’s specialty, Chopin. At the time of this writing, a few tickets, expensive ones, remain.

>> Gil Shaham is no Julia Fischer, but he will likely be very good playing the Stravinsky D major violin concerto this week with the National Symphony Orchestra (February 26 to 28). The deal is sealed by the rest of the program led by up-and-coming Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu, all modern with more Stravinsky, Kurt Weill, and Thomas Adès. Tickets: $20 to $80.

>> Lastly, WPAS will also be hosting a visit by the London Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday (February 26, 8 p.m.) in the Music Center at Strathmore. Their hot-shot conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, will lead performances of Ligeti’s Atmosphères, Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (of 2001: A Space Odyssey fame), some Mahler, and pianist Leon Fleisher playing a Mozart concerto. Tickets from $67.