February comes to an end with a full week of concerts, from which the following highlights will likely be the best.
Composer Erkki-Sven Tüür HEADLINERS:
>> The best concerts in Washington are sometimes the free ones, like Tuesday night’s appearance by the Lyon-based Quatuor Debussy (February 22, 8 p.m.) at the Library of Congress, in an intriguing program of Puccini, Milhaud and Philip Glass. Canadian pianist Katherine Chi joins for Franck’s F minor piano quintet.
>> In the excellent series featuring leading European contemporary composers, Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür will speak at the Phillips Collection on Thursday (February 24, 6 p.m.), following a concert devoted to his music. Show up early for the screening of a film about Tüür’s music, Seven Etudes in Pictures by Marianne Kõrver, at 4 p.m.
>> The Shanghai Quartet will give a free concert at the Freer Gallery of Art on Friday (February 25, 7:30 p.m.), playing pieces by Beethoven and Schumann. Wu Man, one of the leading virtuosos on the traditional Chinese pipa, joins for a performance of Lei Liang’s Five Seasons.
>> Pianist Wu Han, cellist David Finckel and violinist Philip Setzer team up for a concert of Schubert piano trios on Friday (February 25, 8 p.m.) at the Clarice Smith Center in College Park.
>> The extraordinary viola da gamba player Paolo Pandolfo returns to Washington for a free concert on Saturday (February 26, 2 p.m.) with theorbist Thomas Boysen at the Library of Congress. The program combines music by two of the greatest gamba composers of history, Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais.
>> Pianists Adam Neiman and Andrius Zlabys offer an unusual pairing of preludes by Bach and Chopin on Saturday evening (February 26, 8 p.m.), part of the Dumbarton Concerts series in Georgetown.
>> Finally, on Sunday afternoon (February 27, 4 p.m.) WPAS will present a recital by violinist Hilary Hahn and pianist Valentina Lisitsa in the Music Center at Strathmore. Some more expected favorites by Bach, Tartini and Beethoven are balanced by more recent sonatas by Charles Ives and George Antheil.
