On Sunday afternoon, Washington Performing Arts Society concluded another excellent season with the latest concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. The impressively full hall bore witness to the continued popularity of this prestigious ensemble, in spite of the turning of critical opinion against it. According to one recent assessment of American orchestras, the Philadelphians are no longer among the symphonic Big Five. The problems began when current Music Director Christoph…

If the Christmas shopping season begins the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas Concert season begins in the first weekend of December. Some groups perform the same music ad nauseam — especially Handel’s Messiah, a work that Congress should pass a 10-year moratorium against performing — and others program new and interesting music every year. Just trust us when we say that, if you want to hear a Christmas Concert in this city, you can. Throughout…