Last week’s battle of the orchestras may be eclipsed by this week’s. Besides the local symphonic ensembles, there are some visitors in the ring, too. The common theme is the piano concerti of Johannes Brahms, both of them disarmingly beautiful pieces, and here is how we call it. THE ORCHESTRAS >> The week starts strong with the Cleveland Orchestra on Monday (October 15, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Washington Performing Arts Society…

Local NPR station WETA-FM recently completely reversed course a second time, switching back to a classical format after two unsatisfactory years as a news station. With the “New Classical” WETA came all kinds of questions about programming, complicated by the fact that WETA was also absorbing the area’s last commercial classical station, WGMS. Would WETA return to its former identity before the change to news? Would it become a version of the classical lite WGMS?…

This is your last weekend to take part in Take a Friend to the Symphony Month, the brain child of music blogger Drew McManus at Adaptistration. The big news in classical music this week is that the area’s two leading symphony orchestras are both offering great concerts that feature 20th-century music and even some from the 21st century. We are going to try to review them both for you. MODERN SYMPHONY: >> Former music director…

James Levine, the renowned music director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, took over at the podium of the Boston Symphony Orchestra recently and has brought that group significant national attention with his daring programming. The Boston Symphony comes to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this Saturday (March 11, 4:30 p.m.) for a concert that we have no business recommending because it is already sold out. (Recently injured in an onstage fall, Levine will…

Now that we are almost in October, the fall season of classical music is heating up, and we have put together a list of highlights through December for you over at Ionarts. But, this week, you should give some thought to hearing some of the good music out there (we have a more complete listing at Ionarts). We reiterate our recommendation from last week: the first opera in the 50th anniversary season of the Washington…