Emily Adams and Hadriel Diniz in Ballet West’s Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center. Photo: Beau Pearson Nutcracker season is upon us. The Kennedy Center has taken to presenting its sumptuous performances of the Tchaikovsky favorite over Thanksgiving weekend, with a different American company invited each year in a pleasing rotation of different productions.  This year, Utah’s Ballet West made its fourth trip to the Opera House with its storybook staging, based on the first complete Nutcracker in the United States, choreographed by Willam F. Christensen. Seen at the Sunday matinee performan ..read more

Ballet West Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Opera House kennedy-center.org November 24 Ballet West Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Opera House kennedy-center.org November 25 Ballet West Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Opera House kennedy-center.org November 26 Ballet West Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Kennedy Center Opera House kennedy-center.org Rebec ..read more

Now in their final season, the Orion String Quartet performed at Wolf Trap on Sunday. Photo: A. E. Landes The Orion String Quartet, which formed in 1987 and has maintained its current lineup since 1993, stopped at The Barns at Wolf Trap on Sunday afternoon for its final Washington-area performance; the much-decorated quartet will disband at the close of the 2023-24 concert season.  Violinists (and brothers) Daniel Phillips and Todd Phillips, violist Steven Tenenbom, and cellist Timothy Eddy made Sunday’s concert into a celebration of the transcendence that can happen when four skilled m ..read more

  Renée Fleming performed with the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra Saturday night. Photo: FSO The Fairfax Symphony Orchestra opened its fall season with a gala-style concert Saturday night. The orchestra, amped up to around 80 musicians, sounded full-bodied in grandly romantic selections by Wagner and Strauss. Soprano Renée Fleming, in a gown of autumnal metallic orange and switching to demure lilac after intermission, brought her star power to GMU Center for the Arts in her FSO debut. Music director Christopher Zimmerman led a surging rendition of the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and ..read more

Ken-David Masur led the National Symphony Orchestra in music of Mozart and Mendelssohn Thursday night at the Kennedy Center. Michael Tilson Thomas, the beloved former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, was slated to conduct this week’s National Symphony Orchestra concerts. His visit to Washington was part of a series of appearances he wanted to make with favorite orchestras. The conductor’s ongoing treatment for brain cancer led him to withdraw from this program, although he is reportedly moving ahead with other slated events elsewhere this month. Ken-David Masur, music director o ..read more

Kronos Quartet plays George Crumb’s “God-music” in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Photo: Nación Imago) On Saturday night Washington Performing Arts presented the Kronos Quartet in a recital celebrating the group’s 50th anniversary. Comprised of violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt, and cellist Paul Wiancko, the ensemble has come to occupy a singular perch over the years for their focus on the chamber music of the present. While featuring some nods to abiding collaborations and signature pieces, Saturday’s omnivorous program was no retrospective, choosing instead to emphasize ..read more

Conductor Tarmo Peltoski and soloist Yuja Wang play a Brahms encore duet following Wang’s performance of Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Symphony Orchestra Thursday night. Photo: Scott Suchman It’s hard for anyone to upstage Yuja Wang. The 36-year-old pianist, clad in hot pink and stiletto heels for her latest appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra, has been a Wunderkind for a decade and a half. Yet she was the veteran presence Thursday night on stage with Tarmo Peltokoski making his NSO debut. The 23-year-old Finnish conductor took the podium in a cloud of brash and ..read more

Eugene Rogers conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra and Washington Chorus Sunday in the Music Center at Strathmore. Photo: Elman Studio 2 The upside of classical music organizations opening up their repertoire to underrepresented composers is that audiences get to hear something new and different.  This was certainly the case with the concert given by the National Philharmonic and The Washington Chorus Sunday afternoon in the Music Center at Strathmore. The downside is that your regular audience may not turn out for things they do not recognize, also evident from the many empty ..read more

Rosa Feola and Adam Smith star in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at Washington National Opera. Photo: Scott Suchman After last week’s disappointing world premiere of Grounded, Washington National Opera was in need of a hit. As of Saturday night, it has one in this colorful new production of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, running in repertory in the Kennedy Center Opera House. With a near-perfect cast, this larger-than-life romantic grand opera is just what the doctor ordered. Gounod’s opera premiered in Paris in 1867, and proved his second greatest success after Faust in 1859. The libretto ..read more

Anna Kiskachi performed at Live! At 10th and G Saturday night, presented by Capriccio Baroque. Anna Kiskachi opened her harpsichord program with Handel Saturday night, presented by Capriccio Baroque at Live! At 10th and G. In the Eighth Keyboard Suite, she immediately showed her instrumental facility: the Overture had a taut rhythmic spring and dashing articulation, and the Sarabande contrasted with free phrasing that underscored the aching melody. The Passacaille began simply but, under Kiskachi’s firm control, slowly built into massive textures of crisply articulated runs and satisfyi ..read more