Violinist Baiba SkrideThis is a week for symphony orchestras with visiting ensembles lining up against our hometown teams. Seven days of free concerts after the jump.
>> The National Symphony Orchestra completes an extraordinary three weeks of programming with another rarity, Alexander Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony (March 17, 19 and 20). Christoph Eschenbach conducts baritone Matthias Goerne and soprano Twyla Robinson in the work and then takes to the piano himself as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23.
>> Latvian violinist Baiba Skride comes to town on Thursday (March 17, 8 p.m.) to play Berg’s violin concerto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Guest conductor Mario Venzago will also conduct the fifth symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert, in the Music Center at Strathmore. Other performances, on Friday and Saturday, will be in Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
>> The first of two touring orchestras, the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan will play the Music Center at Strathmore on Wednesday (March 16, 8 p.m.), presented by Washington Performing Arts Society. André Previn will conduct Prokofiev’s fifth symphony and Takemitsu’s Green, as well as Elgar’s lovely cello concerto with soloist Daniel Müller-Schott.
>> Second is the Boston Symphony Orchestra on Saturday afternoon (March 19, 4 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Hall, presented by WPAS. After the much-publicized retirement of James Levine from the Boston podium — long overdue, frankly, given the talented maestro’s health problems — the BSO will appear with Roberto Abbado at the helm in a program of another Beethoven fifth, Haydn’s Symphony No. 93 and Bartók’s third piano concerto with soloist Peter Serkin.
>> With all the big boys playing, do not forget the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra on Thursday night (March 17, 8 p.m.). Their program includes the third symphony of Brahms and the Harmonielehre of John Adams, in College Park’s Clarice Smith Center.
