WETA FM 90.9 Blog

I wrote about Friedrich Kleinhapl‘s upcoming Beethoven recital on Thursday, October 1st (7.30PM) at the Austrian Embassy earlier this week.

Thursday through Saturday, October 1st (7PM), 2nd (8PM), and 3rd (8PM), the NSO will attempt to entertain with Beethoven’s sometimes rousing, sometimes dozy “Pastoral” Symphony, and then undoubtedly jolt things with Bartók’s Wooden Prince. Like all concerts under Iván Fischer, this should be self-recommending. (Kennedy Center Concert Hall)

Speaking of Bartók: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop will be challenged in his Concerto for Orchestra after having the folk ensemble Harmonia set the mood with traditional music of the kind Bartók collected and incorporated. After that, the ears will be soothed by James Ehnes with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. Thursday, October 1st at Strathmore (8PM), the 2nd (8PM), 3rd (8PM), and 4th (3PM) at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

The opportunity to hear a Sackbutt ensemble should never be missed, if only to rid yourself of possibly embarrassing misunderstandings. Admission to the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble concert on October 2nd (8PM) at the George Mason University Center for the Arts is free, to boot.

The nation’s self declared premiere baroque chorus and orchestra, the Washington Bach Consort, should be held to its own high standards when they will perform Bach’s b-minor Mass at the National Presbyterian Church on Sunday, October 4th (3PM).

Then again, the musical event to choose on October 4th is probably the Jupiter String Quartet’s appearance at the Corcoran Gallery (4PM). They have made a name for themselves with astounding performances in DC, and I still remember their first appearance at the Corcoran four years ago very fondly.

Don’t forget the monthly Bach lunch-time-sanctuary that the Washington Bach Consort provides every first Tuesday of the month. October 6th (noon), free, and at the Church of the Epiphany. This Tuesday, they will perform BWV 18, “Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt”.

Thursday October 8th (7PM), Saturday the 10th (8PM), and Sunday the 11th (1.30PM) one of the greatest, most musical active pianists—Nelson Freire—will grace the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, performing Brahms’ d-minor Piano Concerto (No.1, op.15). The National Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Ludovic Morlot. The concerto comes coupled with Martinů’s The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca and another Francesca, the one from Rimini, courtesy Tchaikovsky. [Update: Performing will be Markus Groh, instead. Freire is, sadly, sadly, sadly, out with the flu.]

The Washington National Opera will perform two of its productions this month, Falstaff and Ariadne auf Naxos. Falstaff (first performance October 10th, 7PM) is an opera that manages at once to be both one of Verdi’s best, and one of Verdi’s most overrated. I know I always expect too much of it, but I never don’t like it, either. With singers like Alan Opie, Elizabeth Bishop, Nancy Maultsby, and Tamara Wilson, it is reasonable to have high expectations, though. Ariadne’s doesn’t, on paper, look quite as promising—except that Lyobov Petrova will take on the dominating role of Zerbinetta and judging from her previous performances in Washington (“Femmes au bord de la Crise de nerfs” and “L’Italiana”) she’ll be an absolute blast. (First performance October 24th, 7PM.)

For me, Blandine Rannou’s appearance at La Maison Française on October 13th (7.30PM) is the highlight of the month. I absolutely adore the sound of her instrument, her playing, and just about all her recordings. To hear her play Couperin (Louis, François, Armand-Louis), Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, and Claude-Bénigne Balbastre should be pure bliss.

Sheer curiosity and a touch of the perverse should drive you to hear what Christopher Taylor makes of the Goldberg Variations with a “special instrument that combines the harpsichord’s ability to double its keyboard with the sonority of a modern Steinway”. Sounds potentially horrifying and equally intriguing, and it happens at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on October 14th, 7.30PM.

The idea of free Bach seems to catch on. If you live near the Clarice Smith Center, the 1.30PM performance of the Bach Cantata Series of Cantata BWV 1 “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” might be worth checking out on October 15th.

This isn’t classical at all, but I love Bill Frisell and how you can’t pin him down to any one style. Jazz? Blues? Funk? October 16th, Terrace Theater, 7.30PM and 9.30PM.

Murray Perahia’s WPAS organized performance at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Saturday, October 17th (4PM ) is self recommending. He will play Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, and Schumann.

If you can’t get a ticket or are not into Chopin at all, the Cantate Chamber Singers offer an alternative of contemporary music I find worth mentioning for its inclusion of James McMillan’s Cantos Sagrados. 7PM at St. John’s Norwood Parish in Chevy Chase.

And if that isn’t hip enough for you, Christopher O’Riley will offer his pianistic mélange of Radiohead and Nirvana at the Barns at Wolf Trap the same day at 7.30PM.

Richard Stoltzman still performs? Apparently. With the National Philharmonic under Piotr Gajewski, in a wonderful program of Mozart’s and Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. At Strathmore also on October 17th (8PM).

Haydn, Shostakovich, and Beethoven from the Belcea Quartet should well be worth considering a trip to Baltimore’s Shriver Hall on Sunday, October 18th (5.30PM). If you are at the free concert of the National Gallery of Art that day, instead (6.30PM) you will be able to hear a piano trio by one of my favorite little known composers, Joseph Jongen, performed by the National Gallery Piano Trio.

Meet the opera that gave name to one of the most important and famous baroque ensembles: Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants is coming to town, courtesy Opera Lafayette. The performance takes place at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater on Monday, October 19th at 7.30PM, features the indefatigable François Loup, and is a sublime 70 minutes short. The same night a chamber music alternative awaits with the Eroica Quartet (“and Friends”) in one of the free concerts at the Library of Congress featuring Mendelssohn’s Octet and Spohr’s double quartet. (8PM)

Wonderful singers stop by Washington in October: On the 22nd (8PM) Ben Heppner in an all German program with the NSO conducted by Edo de Waart). On the 23rd (7.30PM) Dawn Upshaw in a recital at Strathmore. And on October 24th (Howard Community College, Smith Theater, 8PM) and October 25th (National Gallery of Art, 6:30PM) Emma Kirkby will bring Dowland and Purcell to our ears.