Sneak Peek at Next Year's Concerts

We will do a full fall music and opera preview later in the year, but some local organizations have been releasing information about their plans for next season. Here are some concerts Ionarts plans not to miss.

Washington Performing Arts Society is winding down a stellar season. Next year, they plan to bring us concerts by Emanuel Ax with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (October 15), András Schiff with Cappella Andrea Barca playing Mozart (October 21), Anne-Sophie Mutter playing Mozart (November 20), Joshua Bell with Jeremy Denk (January 28), Richard Goode (February 11), and Evgeny Kissin (April 18). Visiting orchestras on the schedule are of interest, too. New York had the whole Shostakovich symphonic cycle this spring with Valery Gergiev, but we will at least get Symphony No. 11 ("The Year 1905") with Gergiev and his Kirov Orchestra (October 25). I also look forward to hearing Christoph Eschenbach lead the Philadelphia Orchestra (June 3, 2007), especially because Matthias Goerne will join them to sing Schubert songs.

Shriver Hall has some good names lined up for next season, too. French pianist Hélène Grimaud (November 5) is someone we've been wanting to hear live, and our most recent experience with Ian Bostridge (December 10) was a near-religious one. We will also gladly hear the Tallis Scholars again (April 1), especially after they will also be performing at the Kennedy Center (December 10).

The National Symphony Orchestra has quite a season planned for next year. There will be lots of Shostakovich in November, in honor of his 100th birthday, led by Music Director Emeritus Mstislav Rostropovich. The NSO will be joined by violinist Maxim Vengerov (November 2 to 4) and then -- someone pinch me to see if I'm dreaming -- pianist Martha Argerich (November 9 to 10: please commence your anti-cancellation prayers and incantations immediately) and Yo-Yo Ma (November 11). This follows the Emerson Quartet playing eight of Shostakovich's string quartets at the Kennedy Center (October 10 to 12) and, at an unspecified date right now, the Kirov Opera's concert performance of Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

As for other soloists, Mrs. Ionarts, who is a flutist, can't wait to hear James Galway (October 5 to 7); I look forward to hearing the Capuçon brothers again, playing Brahms this time (February 15 to 17) and Julia Fischer playing Khachaturian (March 15 to 17). The NSO's concert performances of opera this season (Abduction from the Seraglio and Die Walküre) were a success, and next season we will have a concert performance of Strauss's Salome, with Deborah Voigt (January 18, 20, and 22). Finally, Osmo Vänskä will be the guest conductor for a program of Sibelius and Aho, featuring Leonidas Kavakos on the Sibelius D minor violin concerto (March 8 to 10).

Other noteworthy events at the Kennedy Center include a recital of French song by Susan Graham (January 26), as well as the return of the Kirov Opera, with staged versions of Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims (which they presented in Paris last December) and Verdi's Falstaff.