Arts Agenda: Classical music

Each week, ArtsATL delivers a critic’s short list of the shows, exhibitions, concerts and events we recommend for the coming weeks within one discipline or venue type in the kaleidoscope of Atlanta arts and culture. Be sure to check out our recent Fall Arts Preview on music, which covered many of the performances you can attend over the next few months. Here are a few more.

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September 20

Hear the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Talent Development Program at Spivey Hall at 3 p.m. September 20.

September 27

Spivey Hall’s season opens with one of the most celebrated pianists in the world, Richard Goode, at 3 p.m. on September 27. The program will include works by Mozart and Schumann, along with a selection of shorter works.

October 11

Experience a spellbinding symphonic experience filled with Halloween classics performed live by the Atlanta Symphony, along with film score favorites, at Symphony at Sunset. Come in costume and be ready to danse macabre with skeletons, spend a Night on Bald Mountain and journey into the worlds of Harry Potter and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial at 6 p.m. October 11 at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre.

October 16

Pianist Alan Woo made his Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall performing with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He’ll bring a dynamic program of virtuoso piano music to Emory’s Cooke Noontime Series at noon on October 16 in Ackerman Hall at the Michael C. Carlos Museum.

October 22 and 24

Sullivan Fortner joins the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for the beguiling sounds of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue. After intermission, the orchestra drops into overdrive for Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony, nicknamed The Inextinguishable. The Orchestra welcomes the debuts of Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska and Fortner. Concerts are at 8 p.m. October 22 and October 24.

October 24

Hilary Hahn returns to Spivey Hall at 3 p.m. on October 24 for a rare opportunity to hear her in recital and experience an extraordinary collaboration with renowned baritone Matthias Goerne and Cliburn gold medal pianist Yekwon Sunwoo. Central to the program, which will highlight Hahn and Goerne separately and together, is the world premiere of a riveting new work by composer Reena Esmail, co-commissioned by Spivey Hall for Hahn and Goerne.

October 28

At 7 p.m. October 28, The Merian Ensemble opens its season at LOOP (665 Marietta St. NW), a Goat Farm-operated venue within Georgia Tech’s Creative Quarter. In addition to historic and contemporary works by women, they will debut two world premieres: Christy Carew’s Rose, commissioned by The Antinori Foundation, and a new work by Kimberly Osberg. 

October 31

Pianist Igor Levit returns to Spivey Hall at 3 p.m. October 31 with an all-Beethoven program. The 2019 release of his complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas cemented Levit’s reputation as one of today’s foremost interpreters of Beethoven.

November 5 and November 7

Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann kicks off the ASO’s Brahms Revealed, the season-long Brahms festival, with an orchestral suite by Brahms’ hero, Johann Sebastian Bach, alongside Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture and his Piano Concerto No. 2 with ASO Artist-in-Residence Anna Geniushene as soloist. Concerts are at 8 p.m. November 5 and November 7.

November 6

Violinist Robert McDuffie performs around the world as soloist with orchestras, recitalist and chamber musician, from the New York Philharmonic to concerts with R. E. M. and the Rolling Stones. He recently received an honorary doctorate from Emory University, and he’ll perform as part of Emory’s Cooke Noontime Series at noon on November 6 in Ackerman Hall at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, accompanied by William Ransom on the piano.  

November 8

Join the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra for its first concert of the season, led by ASYO Music Director William R. Langley, at 6 p.m. November 8.

November 12, November 14, November 15

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performs Berlioz’s atmospheric song cycle Les nuits d’été, along with selections from his La damnation de Faust, featuring mezzo-soprano Juliette Mey. The ASO Chorus will join Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann and the orchestra for Gabriel Fauré’s hauntingly beautiful Requiem Mass. Concerts are at 8 p.m. November 12 and November 14 and 3 p.m. November 15

November 19 and November 21

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Artist-in-Residence Anna Geniushene returns to play Schumann’s Piano Concerto. After intermission, Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann leads the orchestra in Bruckner’s epic Symphony No. 5. Concerts are at 8 p.m. November 19 and November 21.

December 4

Grammy Award-winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio, founder of the Eroica Trio, returns to Emory for a dazzling program including Spanish showpieces. It’s part of Emory’s Cooke Noontime Series at noon on December 4 in Ackerman Hall at the Michael C. Carlos Museum. She’ll be accompanied by William Ransom on the piano.  

Daniil Trifonov’s 2024 Spivey Hall debut electrified the audience and demanded a quick re-engagement. Musical America’s 2019 Artist of the Year, the Grammy winner has established himself as one of the formidable pianists of our era. After an opening half of Handel, Stravinsky and Schubert, Trifonov turns to vibrant works from the Americas — including his own Tango — culminating in Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4. The concert happens at 7:30 p.m. on December 4.