Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

>> The season opening galas continue next weekend with the National Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Ball on Saturday night (September 25, 7 p.m.). Any time that soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Lang Lang appear on a stage somewhere, tickets will sell, but how much does anyone really want to hear Fleming sing Strauss’s Four Last Songs or Lang Lang play Liszt’s first piano concerto? Not to mention the other fluff on the program. The real action at the NSO will begin next month.

>> Perhaps better to hear Marin Alsop offer a program for the Mahler anniversary that evening (September 25, 8 p.m.) with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore: Mahler’s 7th symphony and his orchestration of a Bach suite.

>> On Friday night, the Post-Classical Ensemble kicks off its season with a concert exploring the reception of George Gershwin in Russia (September 24, 8 p.m.) at the Clarice Smith Center. While we have probably heard too much Gershwin for a while, this is an interesting perspective, although the tickets ($42) are pricey.

>> Organist Jeremy Filsell will give a dynamic recital at Washington National Cathedral on Sunday (September 26, 5:15 p.m.).

>> The Emerson String Quartet also kicks off its concert series at the National Museum of Natural History on Sunday evening (September 26, 6 p.m.), with quartets by Haydn, Berg, and Schubert.

>> On the same evening, talented harpsichordist Jacques Ogg joins gamba player Kenneth Slowik for the first concert of the season from the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society at the National Museum of American History (September 26, 7:30 p.m.), performing all three of J. S. Bach’s sonatas for viola da gamba.