Conductor Mariss Jansons

This week, listeners can see for themselves how the area’s hometown orchestras, all featured below, measure up against the orchestra considered by many to be the finest in the world. Also, a months-long festival of American music — with lots of free concerts to hear — kicks off this weekend.

BATTLE OF THE ORCHESTRAS:
>> Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra often appears at or near the top of lists of the world’s best orchestras. Its biennial appearances in Washington, hosted by the Washington Performing Arts Society, are generally some of the best concerts one can hear. The group returns for a concert tomorrow in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall (February 15, 8 p.m.), with Mariss Jansons conducting Rachmaninov’s second symphony, as well as Dutch violinist Janine Jansen playing Sibelius’s violin concerto. Prepare yourself today by listening to ten of the orchestra’s past performances of complete symphonies, made available for free download at their Web site.

>> Guest conductor James Gaffigan, a “conductor to watch” according to reliable sources, gets his turn at the revolving podium of the National Symphony Orchestra this week (February 18 to 20), also in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The all-Russian program features music by Lera Auerbach, one of my favorite living composers, as well as Tchaikovsky (yet another performance of the fourth symphony) and Rachmaninov’s soupy second piano concerto. Russian virtuoso Denis Matsuev will certainly not disappoint as soloist.