Photo by Kevin H.Omnipresent Christmas music assaults one’s ears throughout the month of December. If it does not push you over the edge, you may be the sort of person who actually wants to hear a Christmas concert at this time of the year. Our picks for the season’s most interesting holiday concerts follow, mostly free of Christmas chestnuts: much more of the best of the rest after the jump.
NOT THE SAME OLD:
>> Top marks this year go to A Renaissance Christmas, the Christmas concert presented by the Folger Consort: a selection of English Renaissance music, with the voices of the Tallis Scholars (December 10 to 12, various times), at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall.
>> At a close second in my book is a new Christmas program from the four singers of Anonymous 4, Noël: Carols and Chants for Christmas (December 16, 7:30 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.
>> Also, A Bach Family Holiday, with Christmas music by Bach and sons, performed by Cantate Chamber Singers and Modern Musick (December 4, 8 p.m.) at St. John’s Norwood Parish in Chevy Chase.
>> Adeste Fideles, a program of Christmas music performed by local all-male choir the Suspicious Cheese Lords (December 5, 5 p.m.), at the Church of the Annunciation.
>> The Baltimore Consort will perform a Renaissance Christmas (December 19, 3 and 7:30 p.m.), in the Mansion at Strathmore.
>> A concert of early music for Christmas, from Europe and the New World, presented by the ensemble Harmonious Blacksmith (December 5 and 6), in the glorious Music Room of Dumbarton Oaks, decorated with medieval and Renaissance art.
>> The Poulenc Trio performs a free concert of music by Jakov Jakoulov and other Jewish composers in honor of Hanukkah on this Sunday (December 5, 6:30 p.m.) at the National Gallery of Art.
>> If you have not seen it before, the Waverly Consort’s The Christmas Story is an ingenious presentation of medieval music for Christmas. After coming to the Kennedy Center last year, it comes back to the area this year in a performance (December 10, 8 p.m.) at the George Mason Center for the Arts.
