Conductor Valery Gergiev

>> Without a doubt, the major event of the week is Tuesday’s performance of Mahler’s eighth symphony, the “Symphony of a Thousand,” by the Mariinsky Orchestra (October 19, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. It is an immense work: part liturgical worship and part Faustian apotheosis, it requires hundreds of performers (if not quite the thousand implied by its nickname). With Valery Gergiev at the podium, it could be transcendent.

>> The casting work of conductor Antony Walker makes the performances of Washington Concert Opera well worth your while. This Sunday (October 24, 6 p.m.), Walker will conduct another fine cast headed by soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at Lisner Auditorium.

>> Any visit to the area by pianist András Schiff is going to get our recommendation. Schiff will play an all-Schumann recital on Wednesday night (October 20, 8 p.m.) in the Music Center at Strathmore.

>> Also in honor of the Schumann bicentenary is a performance of the composer’s song cycle Dichterliebe by tenor Christoph Genz and pianist Charles Rosen the same evening (October 20, 8 p.m.) at the Clarice Smith Center.

MAKE IT FREE:
>> The charming chamber ensemble Trio con Brio Copenhagen plays a free lunchtime concert on Wednesday (October 20, 12:10 p.m.) at the National Gallery of Art.

>> The Freer Gallery of Art hosts an interesting concert of music by Ligeti and Dvořák, performed on Wednesday (October 20, 7:30 p.m.) by the Parker Quartet.

>> The following evening (October 21, 8 p.m.) the Talich Quartet will play a free concert at the Library of Congress, also recommended.