LANG LANG will harness breathtaking talent and technique to a brand of glitzy showmanship that can jeopardize his performances and even his repertory choices at the Kennedy Center (March 11).

Yundi Li follows the model of the 20th-century greats; his program cuts a swath across the virtuoso repertory from Chopin through Ravel to Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" (March 12).

They may altogether overshadow the dimming of another star: A few days later, Alfred Brendel makes his last-ever North American appearance (March 17) at Strathmore.

Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux is one of the finest early-music singers around, with an ability to pour out cascades of fast notes like a shower of gold pieces. She makes her first D.C. appearance in eight years at Lisner Auditorium in another rarity, Rossini's "Bianca e Falliero" (April 13) an opera that long lay neglected until its exhumation during the ongoing Rossini revival. Two other promising young singers, Anna Christy and Teddy Tahu Rhodes (a much-hyped baritone from New Zealand), round out the cast.

One of Leonard Slatkin's consistent strengths has been his championing of contemporary composers with the National Symphony. David Del Tredici was a big star in the classical world in the 1980s, when he broke away from what was then the composer's mainstream of thorny music and started writing lyrical, lush pieces that won the enthusiasm of audiences. Today, many composers are audience-friendly, and Del Tredici is so far from ubiquitous that his "Final Alice" (May 8, 9, 10 at the Kennedy Center), once a concert staple, is hardly played. Add the Paganini First Violin Concerto No. 1, played by the stunning Hilary Hahn, and you have a program that promises almost too much fun.

» Kennedy Center, 2700 F St. NW; 202-467-4600. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)
» The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda; 301-581-5100. (Grosvenor)
» Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st St. NW; 202-994-6800. (Foggy Bottom-GWU)

Written by Anne Midgette/Washington Post
Hillary Hahn photo by Mathias Bothor, courtesy Deutsche Grammophon

Posted by Express at 7:55 AM on February 13, 2008
Tagged in Entertainment , Music