December begins tomorrow, and that means only one thing: it’s time to take that special person in your life to a holiday concert. Do you want to subject him or her to the same old carols, something historical, or something really weird? Here is a list of your options, not including the many performances of Handel’s Messiah or The Nutcracker, to be previewed tomorrow. THE BEST OF THE BEST: >> For those who never want…

After a weekend full of concerts, there is not much to mention this week, for obvious, turkey-related reasons. Still, if you find yourself in town this week, there will be a few things to hear, although tickets may be hard to find. >> On Monday (November 19, 7:30 p.m.), French violinist Nicolas Dautricourt will be hosted by his country’s embassy, La Maison Française. The attractive, all-modern program is bookended by the Poulenc and Debussy violin…

Be a good son or daughter and call your mother today. Then you can start thinking about what concerts to hear this week. Maybe you can ask your mom to come with you. THE BIG GUNS: >> Joining the National Symphony Orchestra this week is Chinese pianist Lang Lang. He and composer Jennifer Higdon have parted ways about her new piano concerto, which he was supposed to premiere this week. Instead, Lang Lang will play…

It’s that time of the year again, when every choral group in the city has a Lenten concert, an Easter concert, or a Holy Week concert. We start this week with some of the best ones for the upcoming week. PREACHING FROM THE CHOIR: >> When the first concert on the list requires a trip to Baltimore, you know that it is going to be good. The Tallis Scholars, one of the best choral groups…

Georg Friedrich Händel’s Messiah (1742) is, I have to keep reminding myself, a masterpiece of music history. It is not that I hate the production, but its overexposure, due to the lamentable annual round of weary performances in December, has mostly deadened my ear to its pleasures. Later this week, we will have a run-down of other Holiday Concert possibilities, but for some people, it is just not the Holiday Season without attending a performance…

One of Washington’s musical treasures is the Washington Bach Consort, a group of singers and instrumentalists directed by J. Reilly Lewis. The group began, in 1977, with local musicians who were devoted to the performance of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. After three European concert tours, beginning in the 1980s, and countless critically praised concerts culminating in a landmark appearance at the Library of Congress last April, the WBC has become an institution,…