Faux harmonics

In the premiere of Matthew Qualye's "Gridley Paige Road" for string ensemble, it's the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra vs. Paul Henry Smith's digitally synthesized Fauxharmonic Orchestra. The Baltimore Sun's Tim Smith separates the G strings from the megabytes:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/music/bal-to.bcooct28,0,416493.story

Elsewhere

Estonia is a locus of contemporary music, and the University of Richmond's Modlin Arts Center samples the Baltic nation's sonic riches, in print in Style Weekly, online at:

http://www.styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=18065

Review: Awadagin Pratt

Oct. 25, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond

Awadagin Pratt, who created quite a stir as a young pianist in the early 1990s, is now 42, an established artist with an academic residency (at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music) and nearly 20 years on the concert circuit. The "Long Way from Normal" novelty has worn off. What remains is his musicianship, still impressive, still explorative and unconventional.

In his first visit to Richmond since 1996, Pratt reprised two staples of his solo repertory, Beethoven’s Sonata in A flat major, Op. 110, and Harold Bauer’s transcription of César Franck’s Prelude, Fugue and Variations, and played his own arrangement of Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.

Pratt is a power hitter when he chooses to be, and one would expect power aplenty in the Liszt. This performance was more striking, however, in its yearning treatment of the sonata’s recurring lyrical subject and brooding statement of the introduction and coda. The intervening pyrotechnics weren’t beside the point, exactly, but came across as episodes between weightier or more heartfelt matters.

The Beethoven sounded somewhat similarly inverted. This is one of the composer’s shorter and, as usually played, more understated sonatas. Pratt’s reading was assertive and nervy, high-romantic rhapsodic in its songful first movement, hard-edged and as sharply accented as a rustic folk dance in its second movement and fugal finale.

The Bach and Franck brought out the best in this pianist. Pratt audibly relishes the formal logic of theme and variations and the balancing act of right and left hands in a fugue. A substantive or expressive tune compounds his engagement.

His Bach arrangement was weighty and more austere than the typical romantic-era organ-to-piano conversion, and featured a nice jolt of humor in its brief quotation of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

The Franck was a labor of love, with the labor sublimated. Pratt caressed the big lyrical theme until it fairly purred and surrounded it with what sounded like an ecstatic improvisation. I doubt that any pianist at work today could improve on his interpretation of this piece.

Awadagin Pratt joins the Virginia Symphony for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 at 8 p.m. Oct. 31 and Nov. 6 at Christopher Newport University's Ferguson Arts Center in Newport News, 8 p.m. Nov. 1 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 2 at the Sandler Arts Center in Virginia Beach. Tickets: $23-$83. Details: (757) 892-6366; http://www.virginiasymphony.org/

Pratt returns to Richmond to join the One Voice community chorus in Beethoven’s "Choral Fantasy" at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Ticket information TBA. Details: (804) 231-0324; www.onevoicechorus.org

Review: 'Il Trovatore'

Virginia Opera, Peter Mark conducting
Oct. 24, Landmark Theater, Richmond

The Virginia Opera’s season-opening production of "Il Trovatore" is a consistently gripping piece of Italianate musical melodrama – strikingly staged, boasting a stellar tenor in Gustavo López Manzitti and a super-stellar mezzo-soprano in Jeniece Golbourne, and conducted with gratifying turbulence and pathos by Peter Mark (marking his 100th production and 699th and 700th performances with the Virginia Opera this weekend).

Golbourne, as the tormented gypsy Azucena, is one of the most remarkable singing actresses ever to perform with this company. Her tone is both rich and biting, and bottoms out below conventional contralto range in a true female baritone. She projects her voice powerfully, and is an intensely dramatic presence, commanding any scene in which she appears. This is the second production in which she has sung Azucena; it won’t be long, I’ll bet, before she's singing the role in the leading opera houses.

Manzitti, as the troubadour (Trovator) Manrico, is a robust, animated and satisfyingly emotive leading man, in consistently good voice and quite capable of pitching the high notes to the rafters. He holds his own in his scenes with Golbourne – no small feat – and reins in his voice to complement others in this opera’s many ensemble numbers.

Baritone Nmon Ford, a regular in Virginia Opera casts in recent years, is a convincing and nicely nuanced heavy as DiLuna, Manrico’s rival (and, he learns too late, sibling). Soprano Eilana Lappalainen, who last appeared with this company as Violetta in a 1994 "Traviata," plunges gamely into the melodramatics of Leonora, object of the affections of Manrico and DiLuna, but struggles with the bel canto demands of the role. Bass-baritone Ashraf Sewailam is similarly taxed vocally as Di Luna’s lieutenant Ferrando.

Stage director Lillian Groag keeps a large cast moving and nicely frames leads in scenes with choristers and supernumeraries. Michael Ganio’s darkly minimalist sets and Richard Winkler’s moody lighting underscore the darkness of this music drama. The orchestra, drawn from Norfolk’s Virginia Symphony, sounds unusually full-bodied and punchy, and its winds and brass add nicely atmospheric sonority.

The final performance of this Virginia Opera production of "Il Trovatore" begins at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 26 at the Landmark Theater, Main and Laurel streets in Richmond. Tickets: $22.50-$87.50. Details: (804) 262-8003 (Ticketmaster), www.vaopera.org

Review: Max Raabe & Palast Orchester

Oct. 15, University of Richmond

On a day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 733 points and CBS pollsters reported that more than one-third of both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s supporters would "detest" the other candidate as president, what better way to spend the evening than to recall the musical amusements of Germany as it was about to slide into depression and political upheaval?

The timing of this performance by Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester, a singer and big band reviving songs and dance tunes heard in the nightclubs and dance halls of the late Weimar Republic, was coincidental – socioeconomic forecasting is not a factor in talent booking by the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. But the coincidence was pretty spooky.

Even the historically hyper-conscious, however, would have been hard-pressed to detect intimations of doom in this show, titled "Tonight or Never."

The selections were American Tin Pan Alley chestnuts garnished with German novelties, mostly naïvely romantic or jocular in tone, sung by Raabe, a lyric baritone who exudes a dry wit in place of the stereotypical cabaret leer, and played by a band that, in 1920s style, features fiddles and early jazz rhythm instruments (tuba, banjo, mallet percussion) alongside the standard brass and reed sections.

European pop and jazz of the ’20s are propelled by the same boop-boop-be-doop rhythmic energy of American music of the time, but with continental touches of gypsy and klezmer music and subtle echoes of the waltz and other European dances. Raabe and company strain this hybrid sound through a filter of art-deco elegance and an emotional tenor that can be perceived as detached or ironic. It’s escapist entertainment, but you can’t be sure what you’re escaping from or what refuge you should expect to land in.

Seeing and hearing a lanky gent with lacquered hair and garbed in white tie and tails singing "Bei mir bist du schoen" (and not mispronouncing "schoen") has the ring of authenticity. He’s still on fairly solid ground in "Singing in the Rain" and "Dancing Cheek to Cheek." But when he turns to "Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" a weirdly appealing cognitive dissonance begins to kick in. By the time he gets to "My Gorilla Has a Villa," we’ve lurched into infectiously giddy surreality.

Raabe inhabits much the same time warp as Leon Redbone, the veteran American revivalist of old-time popular song, and manages a comparable balance between period stylistic rigor and post-modern comic sensibility. The difference is that Redbone is generally a one-man band, while Raabe fronts a large ensemble of virtuoso musicians, several of whom are multi-instrumentalists (a trombonist doubling on viola!), and are willing and able to step into vocal ensembles and provide bits of shtick comedy.

Redbone's venue is a juke joint. Raabe plays the Palast.

Bach and the balance sheet

Paul Lay of The Guardian recommends Bach's Cantata 168, "Tue Rechnung! Donnerwort!" ("Give an account of yourself! Word of thunder!"), as fitting accompaniment for the current economic crisis.

"Capital and interest must one day be settled," the tenor declares. Ach, so . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2008/oct/14/credit-crunch-icesave-bach

'I'm a little tired of myself'

The Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, whose Third String Quartet is being introduced this season by the Shanghai Quartet – among other places, at the University of Richmond on Feb. 22 – anticipates his 75th birthday (Nov. 23), marked by more than 50 concerts worldwide, in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Patrick Stearns:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/20081012_This_birthday_is_serious_business_for_Penderecki.html

'Come and Play'

Friday, Oct. 17 is the deadline for registration for "Come and Play," the Richmond Symphony's second collaborative venture with musicians from the community, scheduled for Nov. 2.

Musicians of all ages are invited to bring their instruments and rehearse alongside symphony musicians from 2:30 to 5 p.m., and perform in a concert at 6 p.m., in the Alltel Pavilion of Virginia Commonwealth University's Siegel Center, Broad and Harrison streets.

Erin Freeman, the symphony's associate conductor, will conduct the musicians in suites from Grieg's "Peer Gynt" and Bizet's "Carmen," Gounod's "Funeral March for a Marionette" (aka the Alfred Hitchcock theme), excerpts from Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique," Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther" theme, Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld" Overture and selections from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Phantom of the Opera."

The event supports music education in the Richmond Public Schools' Symphony in School program. Registration is $10 for adults, $5 for students, with proceeds used for purchase and repair of instruments for students.

Details: (804) 788-4717; www.richmondsymphony.com

Review: Richmond Symphony

Oct. 11, First Baptist Church

Daniel Meyer, second the nine candidates auditioning to become the next music director of the Richmond Symphony, established his classical bona fides last weekend in an all-Haydn program. Meyer, the 36-year-old resident conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony and music director of the Asheville (NC) Symphony and Erie (PA) Philharmonic, is showcased in romantic and contemporary repertory in this weekend's Masterworks program.

In the second of three concerts, Meyer started colorfully with Michael Torke’s "Javelin," written in 1994 for the Atlanta Symphony’s 50th anniversary and with an ear toward the Atlanta Olympics two years later.

Like much of Torke’s orchestral music, this piece could be described as Haydn in future tense – grounded in classical-period form and thematic development, but taking off into modern harmonies and colors and dynamic and rhythmic effects. The string figures and brass choirs of "Javelin" often recall Ravel at his splashiest. Meyer and the orchestra gave the piece a brilliant, energetic reading.

Karen Johnson, the symphony’s concertmaster, was featured soloist in Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto (1939). The Barber is perhaps the most overtly romantic of the concertos Johnson has played in her annual Masterworks solo outings, and it's well-suited to her focused but unplummy tone and unindulgent lyricism.

Her treatments of the melodies of the concerto’s first two movements were heartfelt, but more dreamily wistful than gushingly emotive – more Audrey Hepburn than Vivien Leigh, so to speak. Johnson had energy and technique to spare in the skittishly animated figures of the finale. The orchestra’s lyricism was less reticent, although Meyer generally kept it reined in sufficiently for the violinist to be heard.

The conductor calls Brahms’ Second Symphony "one of my favorite symphonies of all," and in this performance his affection was evident. Affection, however, at times seemed to outweigh technical considerations.

The tonal warmth, singing quality and gently swinging but propulsive quality of the performance could not be faulted. But internal details were sometimes muddled, notably woodwind conterpoint in the first movement; and balances, especially between strings and brass, were unsteady. Meyer’s accenting, more assertive than that of many conductors in this symphony, was a welcome touch.

The program repeats at 8 p.m. Oct. 13 at St. Michael Catholic Church, 4491 Springfield Road in Glen Allen. Tickets: $28. Details: (804) 788-1212; www.richmondsymphony.com That concert will be broadcast live on WCVE (88.9 FM).

Falletta joins arts council

JoAnn Falletta, music director of Hampton Roads' Virginia Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic, has been named by President Bush to the National Council on the Arts, the panel that advises the National Endowment for the Arts on policy, initiatives and funding grants.

"They wanted to know about my philosophy on the arts, the role of government in the arts," Falletta told The Buffalo News of her lengthy interview for the post with unnamed Washington officials. "Not knowing what they were looking for, I told them what I felt truthfully. It was very quiet, very secretive."

Her appointment runs until 2012:

http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/457635.html

A profile of Falletta by Charles Ward, one of the last pieces written by the veteran critic before his retirement from the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/theater/6037057.html

Sign of the times?

Universal Music has signed a recording contract with the Salvation Army's International Staff Band, The Times of London reports:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article4902958.ece

Manahan does moderns

George Manahan, an "affable and excellent music director," guides audiences through the modernism of Debussy, Stravinsky, Britten, Varèse, Messiaen, Steve Reich and Lukas Foss. Remember when Manahan was doing this with the Richmond Symphony? Now he's taking the same kind of show through the five boroughs with the New York City Opera while the company is exiled from its home theater:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/arts/music/06city.html?ref=music

The viability of plans by City Opera's new director, Gerard Mortier, to transform the company into a showcase for modern operas next season could well hinge on Manahan's concert presentations this season. Modernism couldn't ask for a more persuasive advocate.

Anthony Tommasini's review in The New York Times, to which I've linked above, doesn't say whether Manahan has access to a piano in these concerts. I hope so. Watching and hearing him dig into the innards of a complex score at the keyboard is a remarkable experience.

Review: Richmond Symphony

Oct. 3, Bon Air Baptist Church

Edgar Schenkman, the Richmond Symphony’s founding conductor, maintained that Handel, Haydn and Dvořák were the three most underrated great composers. Handel and Dvořák have risen in popular estimation since Schenkman’s day. Haydn remains overshadowed, at least in orchestral circles, by his younger contemporary, Mozart, and his rebellious pupil, Beethoven.

How come? Because there’s too much worthy repertory to choose from? Of Haydn’s 104 numbered symphonies, all but a handful are well above average and at least three dozen are exceptional. Add to that a half-dozen well-wrought concertos, two great oratorios and at least eight orchestral-choral pieces that rank among the finest liturgical music of the classical era. Abundance of riches isn’t a good excuse, though – string quartets, piano trios and solo pianists face comparable quantities of Haydn and aren’t daunted.

The real reason? Haydn is hard but has to sound easy. His musical arguments hinge on sharp contrasts, intentionally broken phrases, unexpected silences, sudden surprises. His style has an elegant surface with an earthy core. His music is full of dance, but it’s the dance of a peasant who’s snuck into the ballroom and taught the gentry how to shake a leg. In every musically meaningful way, Haydn is off-center; but he’s also a master craftsman whose quirky music demands precision and needs to sound like it couldn’t go any other way.

For those reasons, this season’s Haydn Festival featuring the Richmond Symphony’s core chamber orchestra promises to be more challenging, for musicians and audiences alike, than previous series devoted to Mozart, Beethoven and Bach.

Daniel Meyer, the second of nine music-director candidates to appear with the orchestra, sets a very high standard for future installments of this series. He looks and sounds to be one of the few conductors outside the period-instruments circle who really gets Haydn. His timing is unerring, his accents are bracing, his dance tempos swing. He knows when winds are meant to sing and when they’re meant to bark or growl. He has mastered the hydroplaning bass lines that are unique to Haydn’s fastest movements. He understands the baroque-style affectus of Haydn’s lyrical or poignant music, and he embraces the unaffected exuberance of the rest.

The program Meyer is leading this weekend samples all those aspects of Haydn, largely in works from 1760s and ’70s, written in the rococo style straddling the baroque and classical periods.

Qing Li, principal second violinist of the Baltimore Symphony, joining Meyer and the orchestra for Haydn’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in C major, delivered a mostly polished account in the first of three weekend performances. She was most attuned expressively in the central adagio, which clearly echoes baroque style; her treatment of the outer movements emphasized brilliance and refined phrasing – arguably a shade too refined in music that needs a harder sell lest it sound lightweight.

Soprano Anne O’Byrne was featured in the recitative "Che mai m avvenne!" and aria "Come il vapor s’ascende" from "L’isola Disabitata" ("The Deserted Island"), one of the operas Haydn wrote for the in-house troupe maintained by his patron, Prince Nikolaus Esterházy. O’Byrne appropriately invoked the spirit of Cherubino, the love-struck adolescent of Mozart’s "The Marriage of Figaro," in this music of volatile youthful yearning.

A chamber contingent of the Richmond Symphony Chorus, prepared by Erin Freeman, sang robustly in Haydn’s "Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo," better known as the "Little Organ Mass" for its organ obbligato (played here by Michael Simpson) accompanying a soprano soloist (O’Byrne) in the Benedictus. The chorus rendered the "telescoped" (textually overlapped) liturgy of the Gloria and Credo with more clarity than might have been expected, and with the cheerful fervor that 18th-century Austrians brought to musical settings of Catholic liturgy.

The Richmond Symphony String Quartet – violinists Karen Johnson and Soojin Chang, violist Molly Sharp and cellist Neal Cary – made fine work of the presto finale of Haydn’s Quartet in E flat major, Op. 33, No. 2 ("The Joke"), playing its halting final measures for optimal humorous effect.

In the Overture to "L’isola Disabitata" and in Haydn’s Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine"), Meyer obtained crisply articulated, strongly accented performances from the orchestra. String sound was markedly more brilliant than usual in the rather dry acoustic on the Bon Air Baptist Church sanctuary, and wind choirs sounded in fine balance with the strings. Oboist Gustav Highstein was a sparely lyrical solo voice in the opening movement of the symphony.

The program repeats at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 at Goochland High School, 3250 River Road West, and 3 p.m. Oct. 5 at Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland. Tickets: $10-$25. Details: (804) 788-1212, www.richmondsymphony.com

Review: Shanghai Quartet

Oct. 1, University of Richmond

In its two Richmond performances this season, the Shanghai Quartet is premiering works by two composers who would seem to have nothing in common: Dick Hyman, a musician best known for reviving historical American jazz and popular song (in the soundtracks of Woody Allen’s films, among other venues), and Krzysztof Penderecki, the Polish composer whose work heralded late-20th century music's shifting of gravity from atonal avant-gardism toward a more expressive, emotive post-modernism.

Penderecki’s new quartet is coming in February. Hyman’s new Quartet in G major was given its first performance in this Shanghai program.

Jazz and pop lineage and a G major key signature invite expectations of accessibility, not to say frothiness. Hyman delivered no such thing.

This quartet boasts identifiable (if not exactly hummable) melodies and a rhythmic language clearly inherited from the American vernacular; but its voice is more serious than cheerful, and its style is modern neoclassical, hewing more closely to the models of Hindemith or Stravinsky than those of Gershwin or Bernstein. The heart of the piece is an adagio titled "Elegy for Bill Evans," the jazz pianist known for impressionistic tone coloration and a detached, rather ambivalent kind of romanticism.

The Shanghai – violinists Weigang Li and Yi-Wen Jiang, violist Honggang Li and cellist Nicholas Tzavaras – played Hyman’s quartet with attention to details and avoidance of sentimentality. Although none of these musicians can claim a deep immersion in jazz, all handled Hyman’s jazzy rhythms idiomatically. They made a convincing case for the piece as high craft, if not great art.

The great art of this program was the adagio of Beethoven’s Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1. This first of the "Razumovsky" set of quartets is also the first really knotty example of Beethoven’s writing in the medium, in which fairly simple themes are probed, manipulated and enlarged, at all times under great stress. The uptempo movements build in energy and tension. The adagio intensifies in passion, ultimately achieving a profound sobriety of the kind heard in the most deeply spiritual hymns.

The Shanghai proved perfectly attuned to that intense but unindulgent spirituality. The depth of its expression in the adagio overshadowed an otherwise well-paced and well-contoured performance of the rest of the Beethoven quartet, and a comparably fine reading of Brahms’ Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2.

The Brahms was distinguished by judiciously balanced voices and a nice contrast of brilliance from Weigang Li’s first violin and warmth from the rest of the ensemble, especially in Tzavaras’ robust bass lines.

Still godless commies, lest we forget

The communist regime in China has reiterated its long-standing ban on performances of Western religious music, forcing Britain's Academy of Ancient Music to perform Handel's "Messiah" as an invitation-only event at the Beijing International Festival and the Sinfonica Orchestra di Roma to drop a performance of Mozart's Requiem as a benefit for victims of the Sichuan earthquake, Richard Spencer reports in The Daily Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3108810/China-bans-Western-religious-music.html

Symphony, musicians ratify contract; Freeman reups

The Richmond Symphony's board and musicians affiliated with Local 123, American Federation of Musicians, have ratified a three-year contract that will raise section players' salaries to $34,400 by the end of the cycle. They were paid slightly more than $30,000 last season.

Erin Freeman, the orchestra's associate conductor and director of the Richmond Symphony Chorus, has renewed her contract through the 2010-11 season.

David Fisk, the symphony's executive director, said the new contracts are "important steps in a seamless planning process associated with our move back downtown" to the Carpenter Theatre in the new CenterStage complex, and enable "artistic growth based upon continuing balanced budgets."

"Since we have had almost no pay increase for four years, we are pleased that the terms of this contract look to the future in retaining and attracting first-class musicians, and to increasing the size of the orchestra," said Paul Bedell, the orchestra's principal double-bassist and co-chair of the musicians' negotiating committee.

Freeman, a native of Atlanta, sang as a teenager in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus under the late Robert Shaw. She was named music director of the Richmond Philharmonic in 2004; she joined the Richmond Symphony as assistant conductor in 2006 and succeeded James Erb as the Symphony Chorus' director in 2007.

October 2008 calendar

Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student, group and other discounts may be offered.

SCOUTING REPORT

* In Richmond: The Shanghai Quartet plays Beethoven, Brahms and a new quartet by Dick Hyman, the master of musical Americana, Oct. 1 at the University of Richmond . . . Daniel Meyer, second of the nine music-director candidates to perform with the Richmond Symphony, conducts Haydn on Oct. 3, 4 and 5, Brahms, Barber and Michael Torke on Oct. 10, 11 and 13, at six different venues . . . The Virginia Opera opens its season with Verdi’s "Il Trovatore," Oct. 24 and 26 at the Landmark Theater . . . Pianist Awadagin Pratt plays Bach, Beethoven, Franck and Liszt, Oct. 25 at Virginia Commonwealth University.

* New and/or different: VCU and Richmond Symphony clarinetists survey modern music for clarinet ensembles on Oct. 1, and trumpeter Allen Vizzutti tops the roster of VCU Brass Fest, Oct. 6-9 . . . The Albemarle Ensemble and bass clarinetist James Tobin play Elliott Carter’s Woodwind Quintet and works by Malcolm Arnold, Ferenc Farkas and Vivaldi, Oct. 2 at the University of Virginia . . . The East Village Opera Company updates classic opera arias, Oct. 14 at the American Theatre in Hampton, Oct. 20 at UR . . . The Richmond Philharmonic plays four dances from Ginastera’s "Estancia" and Vaughan Williams’ rarely performed "London Symphony," Oct. 19 at VCU . . . The Virginia Symphony and pianist Andrew Russo play Paul Schoenfield’s "Four Parables," Oct. 25 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk . . . Pianist Christopher Taylor samples Messiaen, Oct. 25 at the Library of Congress in Washington . . . Marin Alsop conducts Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Oct. 26 at the Kennedy Center.

* Star turns: Lorin Maazel conducts the New York Philharmonic in an all-Tchaikovsky program, Oct. 4 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, and returns to the Kennedy Center on Oct. 10 to join Marvin Hamlisch in a benefit concert for the new Castleton Festival (launching next July at Maazel’s estate in Rappahannock County) . . . Pianist András Schiff plays four Beethoven sonatas, Oct. 10 at the Music Center at Strathmore near D.C. . . . Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and Camerata Salzburg play Bach and Tartini, Oct. 11 at the Kennedy Center . . . The Eroica Trio performs at The Barns at Wolf Trap, Oct. 17 in Vienna . . . Cellist Steven Isserlis joins the National Symphony in Haydn, Oct. 23-25 at the Kennedy Center . . . Pianist Maurizio Pollini plays Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin, Oct. 29 at Strathmore.

* Bargain of the month: The Richmond Philharmonic in Vaughan Williams’ "London Symphony," Oct. 19 at VCU (donation requested).

* My picks: The Shanghai Quartet in Beethoven, Brahms and Dick Hyman, Oct. 1 . . . Daniel Meyer conducting the Richmond Symphony in Haydn, Oct. 3-5, and Barber, Brahms and Torke, Oct. 10, 11 and 13 . . . András Schiff’s all-Beethoven recital at Strathmore, Oct. 10 . . . Iván Fischer conducting the National Symphony in Mahler’s Third Symphony, Oct. 16-18 at the Kennedy Center.

Oct. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Shanghai Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in F major, Op. 59, No. 1 ("Razumovsky")
Dick Hyman: Quartet in G major (premiere)
Brahms: Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51
$32
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Oct. 1 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Music Faculty Series:
Charles West, Al Regni & David Niethamer, clarinets
Richmond Symphony clarinetists
Gunther Schuller: Duo Clarinet Sonata
Alfred Uhl: Divertimento
Ralph Burns: "Early Autumn"
Lutoslawski: "Dance Preludes"
Gershwin-Hoffer: "Three"
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 1 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 4 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Giuseppe Grazioli conducting
Bizet: "The Pearl Fishers"
Norah Amsellem (Leïla)
Charles Castronovo (Nadir)
Trevor Scheunemann (Zurga)
Denis Sedov (Nourabad)
Andrew Sinclair, stage direction
in French, English captions
$45-$300
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

Oct. 2 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Albemarle Ensemble
James Tobin, bass clarinetist
Malcolm Arnold: "Three Shanties," Op. 4
Ferenc Farkas: "Hungarian Dance"
Vivaldi: Concerto in G minor for flute, oboe and bassoon
Elliott Carter: Woodwind Quintet
Janáček: “Mlada”
$20
(434) 924-3984
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/performance/events/index.html

Oct. 2 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (2 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Opera House, Washington
Washington National Opera
Dan Ettinger conducting
Verdi: "La Traviata"
Elizabeth Futral (Violetta)
Arturo Chacón-Cruz (Alfredo)
Lado Ataneli (Giorgio Germont)
Margaret Thompson (Flora)
Marta Domingo, stage director
in Italian, English captions
$45-$600 (limited availability)
(800) 876-7372
www.dc-opera.org

Oct. 2 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 4 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducting
Beethoven: "Consecration of the House" Overture
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Hélène Grimaud, piano
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5
$20-$80
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Bon Air Baptist Church, Forest Hill Avenue at Buford Road
Oct. 4 (7 p.m.)
Goochland High School auditorium, 3250 River Road West
Oct. 5 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Daniel Meyer conducting
Haydn: "l’isola diabitata" Overture & aria
Anne O’Byrne, soprano
Haydn: Violin Concerto in C major
Qing Li , violin
Haydn: Quartet in E flat major ("The Joke")
Richmond Symphony String Quartet
Haydn: Mass in B flat major ("Little Organ")
Richmond Symphony Chorus
Haydn: Symphony No. 85 ("La Reine")
$10-$38
(804) 788-1212
www.richmondsymphony.com

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Friends of Music Recital:
VCU Music Scholarship winners
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (2:30 p.m.)
Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Oct. 10 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 12 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 W. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Il Trovatore"
Eilana Lappalainen (Leonora)
Gustavo López-Manzitti (Manrico)
Nmon Ford (Count di Luna)
Jeneice Golbourne (Azucena)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ferrando)
James Taylor (Ruiz)
Lillian Groag, stage direction
in Italian, English captions
$27-$110
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (2:30 p.m.)
Shaftman Performance Hall, Jefferson Center, 540 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Opera Roanoke
Steven White conducting
Verdi: "Falstaff"
Peter Castaldi (Falstaff)
Marco Nistico (Ford)
Eric Fennell (Fenton)
Scott Williamson (Bardolfo)
Jeffrey Tucker (Pistola)
Terese Cullen (Alice Ford)
Jennifer Roderer (Mistress Quickly)
Emily Langford Johnson (Meg Page)
Richard McKee, stage direction
in Italian, English captions
$20-$90
(540) 982-2742
www.operaroanoke.org

Oct. 3 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 5 (3 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic & Chorus
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Andrea Makris: "Strathmore" Overture
Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2
Mariusz Patyra, violin
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 ("Choral")
Linda Mabbs, soprano
Patricia Miller, mezzo-soprano
John Aler, tenor
Kevin Deas, bass
$29-$79
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 4 (7 p.m.)
Scottish Rite Temple, 4204 Hermitage Road, Richmond
Richmond Concert Band
Mark W. Poland directing
John Philip Sousa IV, guest narrator
"Sousa Spectacular"
$5 (limited seating)
(804) 737-0468
www.rcband.org

Oct. 4 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
New York Philharmonic
Lorin Maazel conducting
Tchaikovsky: "Francesca da Rimini"
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4
$42-$152
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Oct. 5 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Suzanne G. Cusick
Lecture, "Music and Torture"
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Oct. 5 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Sonia Vlahcevic, piano
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 5 (2 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Kennedy Center Chamber Players
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1
Beethoven: Serenade in D major for string trio
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
$35
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 6 (noon)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
Master class by Sylvia Alimena, French horn
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 6 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
Master class by U.S. Navy Band Brass Quintet
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 6 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
U.S. Navy Band Brass Quintet
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 7 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
Richmond Brass Consort
VCU faculty soloists & ensembles
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 7 (9 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU brass Fest:
No B.S. Brass Band
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 8 (4:30 p.m.)
Oct. 9 (noon)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
Master classes by Allen Vizzutti, trumpet
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 8 (6:15 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
Brass ensembles from Old Dominion University, James Madison University
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 8 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Brass Fest:
VCU Symphonic Wind Ensemble
Terry Austin directing
Allen Vizzutti, trumpet
Program TBA
$5
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Concertante
Martinů: String Sextet
Dvořák: String Sextet in A major, Op. 48
Tchaikovsky: "Souvenir de Florence"
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 9 (7:30 p.m.)
The Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
J. Reilly Lewis, harpsichord
Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano
J.S. Bach: "The Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach" (excerpts)
$25
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 10 (8 p.m.)
Second Baptist Church, River and Gaskins roads, Richmond
Oct. 11 (8 p.m.)
First Baptist Church, Boulevard at Monument Avenue, Richmond
Oct. 13 (8 p.m.)
St. Michael Catholic Church, 4491 Springfield Road, Glen Allen
Richmond Symphony
Daniel Meyer conducting
Michael Torke: "Javelin"
Barber: Violin Concerto
Karen Johnson, violin
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
$20-$50
(804) 788-1212
www.richmondsymphony.com

Oct. 10 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Castleton Festival Benefit Concert
starring Marvin Hamlisch, with Lorin Maazel, others
$20-$60
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 10 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
András Schiff, piano
Beethoven: Sonata No. 16 in G Major Op. 31, No. 1
Beethoven: Sonata No. 17 in D minor Op. 31, No. 2 ("The Tempest")
Beethoven: Sonata No. 18 in E-flat Major Op. 31, No. 3 ("The Hunt")
Beethoven: Sonata No. 21 in C Major, Op. 53 ("Waldstein")
$27-$77
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Oct. 11 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 E. Bremelton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony Pops
Eartha Kitt, guest star
$26-$86
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Oct. 11 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Camerata Salzburg
J.S. Bach: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041
J.S. Bach: Concerto in D minor for two violins, BWV 1043
second violinist TBA
J.S. Bach: Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV 1042
Tartini: Violin Sonata in G minor ("The Devil’s Trill")
$47-$107
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Oct. 11 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Jonathan Carney, leader
Rossini: String Sonata No. 2
Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra
Madeline Adkins, violin
Jonathan Carney, viola
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 ("Italian")
$25-$80
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 12 (4 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Second Sunday South of the James:
Crosswinds
Classical and jazz program TBA
Donation requested
(804) 272-7514
http://www.bonairpc.org/music/concert.htm

Oct. 13 (8 p.m.)
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, Orange Avenue at Williamson Road
Roanoke Symphony
David Wiley conducting
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica")
Dvořák: Cello Concrerto in B minor
Zuill Bailey, cello
$19-$39
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com

Oct. 14 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
East Village Opera Company
Arrangements of arias by Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, others
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
http://hamptonarts.net/american_theatre/onsalenow.php

Oct. 14 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Ritz Chamber Players
Program TBA
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 229-2901
http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/

Oct. 15 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Myssyk conducting
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 15 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Rostropovich Foundation’s Rostropovich Commemorative Scholarship winners
"A Tribute to Rostropovich," program TBA
$35-$60
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 16 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 17 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 18 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Iván Fischer conducting
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
Birgit Remmert, mezzo-soprano
University of Maryland Concert Choir
Children’s Chorus of Washington
$20-$80
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 16 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Collegium Vocale Gent
Kristian Bezuindenhuit, fortepiano
Program TBA
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0708-2008-09-schedule.html

Oct. 16 (7:30 p.m.)
The Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Edwin Good, fortepiano
Works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Domenico Alberti, Carlos Seixas, Duane Heller
$25
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 17 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 19 (2 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Il Trovatore"
Eilana Lappalainen (Leonora)
Gustavo López-Manzitti (Manrico)
Nmon Ford (Count di Luna)
Jeneice Golbourne (Azucena)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ferrando)
James Taylor (Ruiz)
Lillian Groag, stage direction
in Italian, English captions
$44-$98
(703) 218-6500 (Tickets.com)
www.vaopera.org

Oct. 17 (8 p.m.)
The Barns at Wolf Trap, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna
Eroica Trio
Program TBA
$35
(877) 965-3872
www.wolftrap.org

Oct. 18 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra
Miroslaw Jacek Blaszczyk conducting
Mozart: "The Marriage of Figaro" Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
Brian Ganz, piano
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish")
$29-$79
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 19 (1:30 & 3:30 p.m.)
Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, Walton and Seminary avenues, Richmond
American Guild of Organists' International Organ Celebration:
Douglas Brown, organ
Works by African-American composers
Free
(804) 359-5049

Oct. 19 (1:30 & 3:30 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 4602 Cary Street Road, Richmond
American Guild of Organists' International Organ Celebration:
Cheryl Van Ornam, organ
Marsha Summers, soprano
Tracey Welborn, tenor
Arias, duets TBA
Free
(804) 358-2383

Oct. 19 (1:30 & 3:30 p.m.)
Salisbury Presbyterian Church, 13621 Salisbury Road, Midlothian
American Guild of Organists' International Organ Celebration:
Ardyth Lohuis & Mark Koontz, organ
Robert Murray, violin
Jeffrey Price, trombone
Program TBA
Free
(804) 794-5311

Oct. 19 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
James Taylor, tenor
Others TBA
Scenes and arias by Bizet, Verdi, Puccini and Massenet, songs from American musicals
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Oct. 19 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Richmond Philharmonic
Robert Mirakian conducting
Mozart: "Abduction from the Seraglio" Overture
Ginastera: four dances from "Estancia"
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 2 ("A London Symphony")
Donation requested
(804) 673-7400
www.richmondphilharmonic.org

Oct. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Jepson Theatre, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
East Village Opera Company
Arrangements of arias by Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, others
$34
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Oct. 21 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rex Richardson, trumpet
Program TBA
Free
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 21 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Daniel Mueller-Schott, cello
Robert Kulek, piano
Brahms: Sonata in E minor, Op. 38
Schubert: "Arpeggione" Sonata
Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
$24-$28
(434) 924-3984
www.tecs.org

Oct. 23 (6:30 p.m.)
Oct. 26 (4 p.m.)
The National, 708 E. Broad St., Richmond
Kicked Back Classics:
Richmond Symphony
Erin Freeman conducting
Sullivan: "The Mikado" Overture
Stravinsky: "Pulcinella" (excerpts)
Mascagni: Intermezzo from "Cavalleria rusticana"
Weber: "Abu Hassan" Overture
Mozart: "The Impresario" Overture
Bizet: "L'Arlésienne" incidental music (excerpts)
Rossini: "The Barber of Seville" Overture
$10-$17
(804) 788-1212
www.richmondsymphony.com

Oct. 23 (7:30 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Brazilian Guitar Quartet
Program TBA
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
http://hamptonarts.net/american_theatre/onsalenow.php

Oct. 23 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 24 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Iván Fischer conducting
Leo Weiner: Serenade, Op. 3
Haydn: Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major
Steven Isserlis, cello
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
$20-$80
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Grace and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 8 N. Laurel St., Richmond
Elizabeth Melcher Davis, organ
Works by Hollins, Rawsthorne, Sowerby, Weaver, Widor
Free
(804) 359-5628
www.ghtc.org

Oct. 24 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 26 (2:30 p.m.)
Landmark Theater, Laurel and Main streets, Richmond
Virginia Opera
Peter Mark conducting
Verdi: "Il Trovatore"
Eilana Lappalainen (Leonora)
Gustavo López-Manzitti (Manrico)
Nmon Ford (Count di Luna)
Jeneice Golbourne (Azucena)
Ashraf Sewailam (Ferrando)
James Taylor (Ruiz)
Lillian Groag, stage direction
in Italian, English captions
$22.50-$87.50
(804) 262-8003 (Ticketmaster)
www.vaopera.org

Oct. 25 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
The Broken Consort:
Celeste Gates, clarinet
Margaret Lawyer, viola
Todd Barnes, piano
Works by Mozart, Bruch, Mendelssohn
Free
(804) 646-7233

Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
Awadagin Pratt, piano
Beethoven: Sonata in A flat major, Op. 110
Bach-Pratt: Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 582
Franck-Bauer: Prelude, Fugue and Variations
Liszt: Sonata in B minor
$32
Free master class at 4 p.m. Oct. 24, Vlahcevic Hall
(804) 828-6776
www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/music/concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 E. Bremelton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falletta conducting
Stella Sung: "Rockwell Reflections"
Paul Schoenfield: "Four Parables" for piano and orchestra
Andrew Russo, piano
Brahms: Symphony No. 2
$23-$83
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org

Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Fairfax Symphony
Marcelo Lehninger conducting
Villa-Lobos: "The Little Train of the Brazilian Countryman"
De Falla: "Nights in the Gardens of Spain"
Angela Cheng, piano
Rimsky-Korsakov: "Scheherazade"
$25-$55
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.fairfaxsymphony.org

Oct. 25 (8 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
Christopher Taylor, piano
"Messiaen Centennial Concert"
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/0708-2008-09-schedule.html

Oct. 26 (2 p.m.)
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Ninth and Grace streets, Richmond
Piano Performance Team
Works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Joplin, others
Free
(804) 643-3589

Oct. 26 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richard Becker & Doris Wylee-Becker, pianos
Works by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, Stravinsky, others
Free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu

Oct. 26 (4 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Guitar Series:
Richmond Guitar Quartet
Adam Larabee, guitar
Program TBA
$10
(804) 828-6776
www.vcu.edu/arts/music/dept//concerts/events.html?School=Arts&Dept=Music

Oct. 26 (4 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Bernstein: Mass
Soloists, choirs, marching band TBA
$25-$78
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 26 (3 p.m.)
The Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Andrew Willis, fortepiano
Works by C.P.E. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, Beethoven
$25
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org

Oct. 27 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Christopher's Upper School Chapel, 711 St. Christopher's Road, Richmond
Oberon Quartet
Matthew Gold, double-bass
Haydn: Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3 ("Rider")
Matthew Gold: "Four Portraits for Treesa" (2008)
Shostakovich: Quartet No. 1
Free
(804) 282-3185

Oct. 27 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Narek Hakhnazarian, cello
Noreen Polera, piano
Schumann: "Fantasiestücke," Op. 73
Khudoyan: Sonata No. 1 for solo cello
Beethoven: Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69
Shostakovich: Sonata in D minor, Op. 40
Shchedrin: Quadrille
Paganini: "Variations on one string, on a theme by Rossini"
$30
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concerts:
Isabel Bayrakdarian, soprano
Serouj Kradjian, piano
Schubert: "Frühlingsglaube," "Sel mir gegrüst," "Nacht und Träume," "Seligkeit," "An die Musik"
Bellini: "Composizioni da Camera"
Viardot: "Madrid," "Sylvie," "L’Enfant et la Mere," "Moriro," "Desespoir," "Aime-moi" (after Chopin Mazurka)
Gomidas: "Five Armenian Folk Songs"
Ravel: "Six Popular Greek Folk Songs"
Obradors: "Five Spanish Folk Songs"
$24-$28
(434) 924-3984
www.tecs.org

Oct. 28 (8 p.m.)
Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Kimball Theatre, Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg
Williamsburg Symphonia
Janna Hymes conducting
Rossini: "Il Signor Bruschino" Overture
Mozart: Symphony No. 25 in G Minor
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
$30-$42
(757) 229-9857
www.williamsburgsymphonia.org

Oct. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Janaki String Trio
Schubert: String Trio in B-flat major, D. 581
Schoenberg:: String Trio, Op. 45
Mozart: Divertimento in E flat major, K. 563
$35
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Oct. 29 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Maurizio Pollini, piano
Beethoven: Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 31
Beethoven: Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 ("Appassionata")
Schumann: Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17
Chopin: four mazurkas, Op. 33
Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 31
$25-$95
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org

Oct. 30 (7 p.m.)
Oct. 31 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Iván Fischer conducting
Wagner: "Die Meistersinger" Prelude
Wagner: "Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey" from "Götterdämmerung"
Wagner: Prelude and "Liebestod" from "Tristan und Isolde"
Wagner: "Die Walküre," Act 3, Scene 3
Elizabeth Connell, soprano
Juha Uusitalo, bass-baritone
$20-$80
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 30 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Claremont Trio
Smetana: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15
Nico Muhly: piano trio TBA (premiere)
Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op. 99/D. 898
$38
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org

Oct. 31 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Stanford Olsen, tenor
Kenneth Griffiths, piano
Program TBA
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org