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Sep 26, 2023

Classical Music and Opera This Fall: 59 Programs, Premieres and More

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Fall Preview

Among the highlights: the reopening of David Geffen Hall, the premiere of ‘The Hours’ at the Met and visits from the Berlin and Los Angeles Philharmonics.

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By Joshua Barone and Zachary Woolfe

The pandemic hasn't been the only obstacle keeping the New York Philharmonic from its home at David Geffen Hall; the building has undergone a thorough renovation that is set to conclude this fall. When it reopens, it will be to weeks of new works in new formats, like Etienne Charles's parade-like "San Juan Hill: A New York Story." The coming months will also bring a return to form for Carnegie Hall, which is slowly beginning to bring in not just the world's top soloists, but leading ensembles as well, like the Berlin Philharmonic. Still, live performance remains precarious, and subject to change; check websites for the latest information and Covid-19 regulations.

‘ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA’ San Francisco Opera's centennial season begins in glamorous style with a new opera by John Adams — always an event. Adams, with Elkhanah Pulitzer and Lucia Scheckner, also adapted the libretto from the Shakespeare play. Amina Edris and Gerald Finley star as the title couple, and Eun Sun Kim conducts. (Through Oct. 5; War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco)

CRYPT SESSIONS The impresario Andrew Ousley made his name with a series of intimate, charmingly creepy concerts in the crypt beneath the Church of the Intercession in Harlem. This fall, the series opens with the pianist Inna Faliks and goes on to feature Lara St. John, Parker Ramsay and James Carson. (Sept. 12, Church of the Intercession, Manhattan)

WET INK ENSEMBLE This eclectic collective of performers and composers opens its season with the premiere of Kate Soper's "HEX" — billed as a dramatic satire about the gates of hell — featuring Soper and Rick Burkhardt (an ensemble artist in residence) on voice and piano alongside the unconventional septet Orlando Furioso (a project of the composer and drummer Vicente Hansen Atria, also in residence). (Sept. 14; Roulette, Brooklyn)

‘MASS’ Leonard Bernstein's maximalist, multigenre Mass was one of the works to inaugurate the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1971. Now it is back to conclude the center's 50th anniversary celebrations, with James Gaffigan leading the National Symphony Orchestra and the baritone Will Liverman in the role of the Celebrant. (Sept. 15-18; Kennedy Center, Washington)

MIDTOWN CONCERTS Celebrating its 25th season, this series brings free early music performances to St. Malachy Church every Thursday at 1:15 p.m., under the auspices of Gotham Early Music Scene. (Sept. 15 and ongoing; St. Malachy Church, Manhattan)

NASHVILLE SYMPHONY Giancarlo Guerrero conducts the world premiere of Julia Wolfe's "Her Story" on a program that includes Joan Tower's recent "1920/2019," written for the New York Philharmonic's Project 19, and Florence Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement, with Karen Walwyn as soloist. Like "1920/2019," Wolfe's piece, which features the Lorelei Ensemble as vocalists, celebrates the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment. (Sept. 15-17; Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville)

THE CROSSING This essential choral ensemble has a major season ahead, performing in partnership with the likes of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra next spring, most notably in the premiere of John Luther Adams's "Vespers of the Blessed Earth." But first up is "Walking the Farm: A Progressive Concert," an ambulatory program in which new music by George Lewis is offered alongside works by Kirsten Broberg, David Shapiro and Peteris Vasks. (Sept. 17 and 18; Kings Oaks Farm, Newtown, Penn.)

‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ Barrie Kosky's production of this classic musical resists the sentimentality that has become associated it with. Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the show with a cast led by Steven Skybell. (Sept. 17-Oct. 7; Civic Opera House, Chicago)

‘LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR’ Los Angeles Opera is the next host of Simon Stone's slick, canny production of the Donizetti classic, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera last season and moves the action to a declining present-day American town. In California, it will star Amanda Woodbury and Liv Redpath; Lina González-Granados conducts. The ambitious company also opens Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels's "Omar" on Oct. 22. (Sept. 17-Oct. 9; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles)

SEATTLE SYMPHONY This orchestra has been without a music director since Thomas Dausgaard abruptly resigned last season. So its season will begin with Dausgaard's predecessor, Ludovic Morlot, at the podium, leading a world premiere by the artist in residence, Angelique Poteat, as well as a sampling of Chopin with the pianist Jan Lisiecki. (Sept. 17; Benaroya Hall, Seattle)

ST. LOUIS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Stéphane Denève leads his ensemble in a season-opening program billed as "postcards from faraway places": music by Ibert and Dvorak, as well as by Nathalie Joachim, who will be making her debut with the orchestra performing vocals in her work "Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti)." (Sept. 17 and 18; Powell Symphony Hall, St. Louis)

‘THE VALKYRIES’ This summer, the innovative director Yuval Sharon brought the third act of Wagner's opera "Die Walküre" to the Hollywood Bowl, with the help of green screens and sophisticated camerawork; the production now moves to Detroit Opera (run by Sharon). November brings Lileana Blain-Cruz's production of Gounod's original version of "Faust" to Detroit, and Sharon's reversed-acts staging of "La Bohème" plays at Boston Lyric Opera from Sept. 23 through Oct. 2. (Sept. 17-20; Detroit Opera House, Detroit)

‘ÑOMONGETÁ’ Most operas still emerge from a tiny handful of language traditions, but this new work by Diego Sánchez Haase is in Guaraní, an Indigenous language widely spoken in Paraguay. Written for a tenor (here José Mongelós) who accompanies himself on Indigenous instruments, the piece imagines a dialogue about colonization with Christopher Columbus. Music of the Americas and Opera Hispánica present the U.S. premiere at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York (and another performance at that museum's Washington location on Sept. 24). (Sept. 18)

TENET Opening its season on Sept. 18 with a program of Bach motets, this superb early-music vocal ensemble goes on to sing polyphony from Latin America (Oct. 22) and pieces featuring Baroque trumpet (Nov. 19). (Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Manhattan)

TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Celebrating its centennial, this ensemble, led by Gustavo Gimeno, begins its season with a festive prelude: the world premiere of Kevin Lau's "The Story of the Dragon Gate." The program continues with Lera Auerbach's "Icarus," along with Bruce Liu as the soloist in Chopin's Second Piano Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov's crowd-pleasing "Scheherazade." (Sept. 21-24; Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto)

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Riccardo Muti's final season with this orchestra begins with the U.S. premiere of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's 19th-century "Solemn Prelude," as well as Brahms's First Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony (Sept. 22-27). Yefim Bronfman, the soloist for the Brahms, will be making the rounds elsewhere: joining Xian Zhang to start the New Jersey Symphony's season with Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto (Oct. 7-9); and inaugurating the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's new Steinway with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat (Oct. 28-30). That same month, back in Chicago, the German conductor Christian Thielemann makes an appearance in the repertoire he does best, Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. (Oct. 20-25)

‘MEDEA’ Opening the Metropolitan Opera's season for the first time since "Norma," in 2017, the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky gets another work that was famous as a vehicle for Maria Callas: this Cherubini classic about a woman driven to extremis by anger at her wandering husband. In its Met premiere, Carlo Rizzi conducts the Italian version, rather than the French original; David McVicar, omnipresent at the Met these days, directs; Matthew Polenzani, Janai Brugger, Michele Pertusi and Ekaterina Gubanova round out the cast. (Sept. 27-Oct. 28; Metropolitan Opera)

‘MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT (AFTERLIFE)’ Tyshawn Sorey's evening-length work, originally written for the monumental serenity of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, scales up — in more ways than one — to the cavernous drill hall of the Park Avenue Armory, with visual art contributions by Julie Mehretu, a staging by Peter Sellars and choreography by Reggie (Regg Roc) Gray. (Sept. 27-Oct. 8; Park Avenue Armory)

‘IDOMENEO’ Given its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1982 and long championed by James Levine, this opera — perhaps the first of Mozart's maturity — returns to the post-Levine Met led by the profound Manfred Honeck, in his company debut, with a promising cast that includes Michael Spyres, Kate Lindsey, Ying Fang and Federica Lombardi. (Sept. 28-Oct. 20, Metropolitan Opera)

COMPOSER PORTRAITS The Miller Theater's signature series of deep dives into contemporary figures begins this season with Liza Lim, in a concert starring the JACK Quartet; later programs feature Luca Francesconi, Oyvind Torvund, Suzanne Farrin and Nicole Mitchell. (Sept. 29; Miller Theater, Manhattan)

‘LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK’ Graham Vick's savagely cartoonish production of Shostakovich's opera is one of the Met's most dramatically potent shows, returns with one of leads from the last revival, in 2014: Brandon Jovanovich, now joined by Svetlana Sozdateleva. The conductor is Keri-Lynn Wilson, who is making her debut with the company led by her husband, Peter Gelb. (Sept. 29-Oct. 21; Metropolitan Opera)

PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA Another season, another de facto residency at Carnegie Hall for the this ensemble and its music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. A day after their season opener at home, with Lang Lang and BalletX performing choreography by Tiler Peck of New York City Ballet, the Philadelphians headline Carnegie's gala on Sept. 29, with Nézet-Séguin leading works by Ravel, Gabriela Lena Frank and Dvorak, as well as Liszt, with a hand from the pianist Daniil Trifonov. More Carnegie appearances follow in the fall: a concert with Beatrice Rana (Oct. 28); and a starry Mahler Fourth, with Pretty Yende, following a new work by Xi Wang (Dec. 13) that premieres a few nights earlier in Philadelphia (Dec. 8-10). That's not the only premiere in store: The violinist Jennifer Koh plays a new concerto by Nina Young in a Philadelphia concert conducted by Marin Alsop (Nov. 17-19). (Kimmel Center, Philadelphia)

‘BLACK LODGE’ The composer David T. Little, known for music that turns artfully brutal, creates an amalgam of live performance and film that evokes the intense surrealism of Burroughs and Lynch. The libretto is by Anne Waldman; Michael Joseph McQuilken directs; Timur and the Dime Museum performs. The premiere is a highlight of Opera Philadelphia's annual O festival, which this year also includes Rossini's "Otello" and Toshio Hosokawa's "The Raven." (Oct. 1-2; Philadelphia Film Center, Philadelphia)

MUSIC BEFORE 1800 This thoughtful, long-running series begins its season with the Boston Camerata and a program based on the spirituals tradition, the first in a new American Roots initiative. Other concerts feature Vox Luminis (the Bachs and Buxtehude, Oct. 23) and Juilliard415 (repertory out of Dresden, Germany, Dec. 11). (Oct. 2; Corpus Christi Church, Manhattan)

ATTACCA QUARTET This group's 2021 album "Of All Joys" was an expansive and emotional exploration of what it means to make music collaboratively at the tail end of one of classical music's most difficult, isolating periods. They bring a live version to Brooklyn as part of the impresario Andrew Ousley's series the Angel's Share. (Oct. 4-6; Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn)

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY Esa-Pekka Salonen was in the pit for one of the bleakest and most overwhelming classical music events of the summer: Romeo Castellucci's staging of Mahler's Second Symphony at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Now, Salonen brings his take on the work to San Francisco to open its season (Sept. 29-Oct. 2). The Mahler seems to be a popular choice: You can find also find it under the baton of Louis Langrée at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Sept. 24-25), as well as under Franz Welser-Möst with the Cleveland Orchestra (Sept. 29-30). Only in San Francisco, though, will it be paired with a premiere by Trevor Weston; it's followed by another first, the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg's Third Piano Concerto, featuring Yuja Wang, which travels to the New York Philharmonic under Santtu-Matias Rouvali early next year (Oct. 13-15). (Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco)

ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Nathalie Stutzmann, the lone woman among music directors of the 25 largest orchestras in the United States, officially takes the podium this fall, and does so in grand fashion: with Beethoven's Ninth, paired with Hilary Purrington's recent choral work "Words for Departure." (Oct. 6-9; Atlanta Symphony Hall, Atlanta)

BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA In the second week of its Symphony Hall season, this storied ensemble presents the premiere of Elizabeth Ogonek's "Starling Variations," conducted by Andris Nelsons on a program that also includes Shostakovich's Third Symphony and a Bernstein twofer: "Chichester Psalms" and the concerto-like "Serenade (After Plato's Symposium)," with the elegant violinist Janine Jansen (Oct. 6-8). Nelsons returns the next month to lead the premiere of Caroline Shaw's orchestrated version of "Punctum" (Nov. 3). (Symphony Hall, Boston)

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC The finest orchestra on the West Coast — and one of the best in the country — begins its Pan-American Music Initiative near the start of its season, with the premiere of a new violin concerto by Gabriela Ortiz (Oct. 6-9), before heading to Carnegie Hall for two nights. Ortiz's concerto is on the bill, along with Mahler (Oct. 25), followed by a program featuring the New York premieres of Ortiz's "Kauyumari" and Arturo Márquez's "Fandango" (Oct. 26). All of these concerts will be led by Gustavo Dudamel, who in December, back in Los Angeles, leads a three-night account of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" (Dec. 9-17) ahead of conducting it at his other home, the Paris Opera, early next year. (Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles)

‘SAN JUAN HILL’ The original sin of Lincoln Center was the destruction of San Juan Hill, a largely Black and Latino neighborhood, to create a gleaming temple to the arts — a fact that has been only haltingly acknowledged over the decades. But at a time of widespread racial reckoning, the organization is coming cleaner, commissioning Etienne Charles's "San Juan Hill: A New York Story" as part of the reopening of the renovated Geffen Hall. Charles's Creole Soul ensemble will join the New York Philharmonic in what is planned as a cleansing parade and performance. (Oct. 8; David Geffen Hall)

‘EVERYTHING RISES’ The violinist Jennifer Koh and the bass-baritone Davóne Tines — two artists with an eye on classical music's fraught relationship with race — bring their staged exploration of personal history and the possibility of a new, more honest space in the industry for themselves to the Brooklyn Academy of Music after its premiere in California earlier this year. (Oct. 12-15; BAM Fisher, Brooklyn)

N.Y. PHIL RETURNS HOME As it inaugurates its renovated hall, the Philharmonic goes for the spectacular, with an emphasis on the contemporary, conducted by Jaap van Zweden. It unveils Marcos Balter's "Oyá," which complements the orchestra with lighting and electronic design, and revives Tania León's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Stride," from 2020. Anchoring the program are two colorful showcases: John Adams's "My Father Knew Charles Ives" (2003) and Respighi's evergreen "Pines of Rome." (Oct. 12-18; David Geffen Hall)

SPHINX VIRTUOSI The house band of the Sphinx Organization, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this season, stops by Carnegie Hall for an evening of characteristically varied programming, including the New York premieres of works by Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery, as well as the world premiere of the rising composer Xavier Foley's "An Ode to Our Times." (Oct. 13; Carnegie Hall)

PEYVAND A collaboration between the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Iranian Female Composers Association takes as its theme "peyvand," the Persian word for connectivity, and features a premiere by Niloufar Nourbakhsh. (Oct. 15; Skirball Center)

RHIANNON GIDDENS This busy musician begins her Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall with the program "When I Am Laid in Earth" with her partner, Francesco Turrisi, in the intimate Weill Recital Hall (2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 15). Next up is an evening on Carnegie's main stage, where she will be joined by fellow banjo players for "Songs of Our Native Daughters," a program with the stories and struggles of Black women in mind (Nov. 4). (Carnegie Hall)

‘PETER GRIMES’ Not seen at the Met since 2008, this Britten tragedy about a troubled fisherman and the town that shuns him returns with the tenor Allan Clayton — bedraggled and magnetic as Hamlet last season — in the title role. Nicole Car and Adam Plachetka join him; Nicholas Carter, who was also superb in "Hamlet," conducts. (Oct. 16-Nov. 12; Metropolitan Opera)

PIANISTS AT CARNEGIE HALL Two eminences of their generations grace the Carnegie stage: the octogenarian Maurizio Pollini, in a genial program of works by Robert Schumann and Chopin (Oct. 16); and the 35-year-old Igor Levit, offering a long but surely rewarding evening of Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues (Oct. 18).

OWLS This string quartet — a dream group made up of the violinist Alexi Kenney, the violist Ayane Kozasa, the cellist Gabriel Cabezas and the cellist-composer Paul Wiancko — brings a time-spanning program of works and arrangements as early as Couperin's 18th-century "Les Barricades Mystérieuses" and as recent as Wiancko's "When the Night" and "Vox Petra," both from 2018, with music by artists like Chick Corea, Terry Riley and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh in between. (Oct. 17 -18; Baryshnikov Arts Center)

AMERICAN COMPOSERS ORCHESTRA The state of the environment is the theme of "The Natural Order," a program led by Mei-Ann Chen and featuring works by Mark Adamo, Viet Cuong, Inti Figgis-Vizueta and Yvette Janine Jackson. (Oct. 20; Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall)

MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA Following the transformative tenure of Osmo Vänskä, Thomas Sondergard, who was named the orchestra's new music director over the summer, comes to Minnesota to lead a program of Lili Boulanger's "Of a Spring Morning" and two ballet scores: Ravel's "Mother Goose" and Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." Sondergard officially takes the podium next season. (Oct. 20-22; Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis)

THE SOUND OF HOME The vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth is the guest on this New York Philharmonic program, the group soloist in the American premiere of "Microfictions," Vol. 3, by Caroline Shaw, the composer and Teeth member. (The concert also includes Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" and Florence Price's Fourth Symphony.) A Nightcap concert on Oct. 20 is led by Roomful of Teeth and features a new work by Angélica Negrón. (Oct. 20-23; David Geffen Hall)

CITY OF BIRMINGHAM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, a conductor currently uninterested in taking up the podium of any major orchestra, returns to her most recent ensemble for a tour stop featuring the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the New York premiere of a symphony by Thomas Adès, based on his harrowing operatic masterpiece "The Exterminating Angel." (Oct. 22; Carnegie Hall)

EARLY MUSIC AT THE MILLER THEATER The Miller's enviable set of early music concerts begins on Oct. 22 with a Monteverdi program from the Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis, and continues with the Orlando Consort (Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries, Nov. 19) and the Tallis Scholars (sacred music past and present, Dec. 10). (Miller Theater, Columbia University)

PEOPLES’ SYMPHONY CONCERTS World-class music for bargain-basement prices has long been the irresistible premise of this series, which opens its season with the cellist Steven Isserlis and the pianist Connie Shih. (Oct. 22, Washington Irving High School)

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT A new Philharmonic series places artists — some established, some rising — in Geffen Hall's Sidewalk Studio. The first program features the cellist Sterling Elliott and the pianist Wynona Wang in works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Suk, Janacek and Shostakovich. (The eminent bass-baritone Eric Owens sings Bach on Nov. 14.) (Oct. 24; David Geffen Hall)

‘AUTOMATIC WRITING’ The group Object Collection has created an enigmatic staged version of this Robert Ashley experiment from the 1970s, in which the pioneering composer played with the possibilities of involuntary speech. (Oct. 26-30; the Brick, Brooklyn)

GEFFEN HALL OPENING GALA Capping weeks of festivities by the New York Philharmonic, this is a gala in two parts: "The Journey" on Wednesday and "The Joy" (featuring Angélica Negrón's "You Are the Prelude" and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony) two nights later. (Oct. 26 and 28; David Geffen Hall)

JEAN RONDEAU Few concerts on the fall calendar promise to be as quietly awe-inspiring as this harpsichordist's take on Bach's "Goldberg" Variations, which he recorded to patient, endlessly thoughtful effect earlier this year. (Oct. 27; Carnegie Hall)

‘THE WRECKERS’ A period of rediscovery of female composers has arrived at Ethel Smyth, whose intense 1906 opera about an impoverished seaside community opened the Glyndebourne Festival this summer and now crosses the Atlantic for what Houston Grand Opera says is the first full-scale production by a major American company. Sasha Cooke stars; Patrick Summers conducts; Louisa Muller directs. (Oct. 28-Nov. 11; Wortham Theater Center, Houston)

CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER Among the highlights of this institution's fall are a return engagement by the always-enlightening Danish String Quartet in a program of Britten, Mozart and Robert Schumann (Oct. 30); juxtapositions of music by Handel and Vivaldi with the countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo (Dec. 6); and the annual presentation of Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos (Dec. 16-20). (Alice Tully Hall)

A STEVE REICH CELEBRATION The pioneering, and still going strong, composer Steve Reich will be 85 by the time this concert honors him with performances from the Colin Currie Group and Synergy Vocals. On the program are two well-known masterpieces, "Tehillim" and "Music for 18 Musicians," sandwiching the American premiere of Reich's latest, "Traveler's Prayer." (Nov. 1; Carnegie Hall)

PIANISTS WITH THE PHILHARMONIC As November arrives and the Philharmonic settles into subscription-season routine in its renovated hall, normalcy arrives in the form of an enviable array of piano soloists. There's Yefim Bronfman in Mozart, Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Babayan in Bartok, Víkingur Ólafsson in Ravel, and Emanuel Ax in Beethoven. (Nov. 2-Dec. 3; David Geffen Hall)

DAVÓNE TINES This brilliant bass-baritone, joined by the pianist Adam Nielsen, brings his program "Recital No. 1: MASS" to Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, which should make an already urgent and deeply considered selection of works — by the varied likes of Bach, Tyshawn Sorey and Caroline Shaw — all the more immediate. (Nov. 3; Weill Recital Hall)

‘DON CARLO’ After a landmark Met premiere of the original five-act French version of Verdi's grand opera last season, the company reverts to its long tradition of performing it truncated and in Italian. Anna Netrebko was to star before having her contracts canceled because of her equivocal statements about President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia; Eleonora Buratto and Angela Meade will replace her, in a fine cast that also includes Russell Thomas, Anita Rachvelishvili, Peter Mattei and Günther Groissböck, with Carlo Rizzi as an experienced hand on the podium. (On Nov. 9 Lyric Opera of Chicago opens a run of the opera in French.) (Nov. 3-Dec. 3, Metropolitan Opera)

BARGEMUSIC There's no performance venue quite like this tiny floating concert hall, moored in Dumbo in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. The programming is eclectic, the mood welcoming and intimate. Among the many shows this fall is one by the pianist and composer Jed Distler, who will play his own work alongside pieces by Frederic Rzewski and David Maslanka. (Nov. 4)

‘FIRE AND WATER’ A potent group — the guitarist Mary Halvorson, the saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, the cellist Tomeka Reid and the drummer Susie Ibarra — joins the pianist Myra Melford in this quintet project, based loosely on the work of Cy Twombly. (Nov. 7; Roulette, Brooklyn)

BERLIN PHILHARMONIC After a pandemic-thwarted tour to Carnegie Hall planned for the 2020-21 season, one of the world's top ensembles returns with its exhilarating chief conductor, Kirill Petrenko, for three evenings including Mahler's Seventh (Nov. 10); works by Andrew Norman, Mozart and Korngold (Nov. 11); and, for another go, the Mahler all over again (Nov. 12). (Carnegie Hall)

‘RIGOLETTO’ Benjamin Bernheim, one of Europe's most acclaimed young tenors, makes his Met debut as the Duke of Mantua in Verdi's classic, alongside Quinn Kelsey and Rosa Feola, the stars when this production was new last season. Later performances feature Luca Salsi, Michael Chioldi, Lisette Oropesa and Stephen Costello; in her company debut, Speranza Scappucci leads the whole run. (Nov. 10-Dec. 29; Metropolitan Opera)

ORATORIO SOCIETY OF NEW YORK This group, conducted by Kent Tritle, begins its season at Carnegie Hall with the world premiere of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell's immigration-minded oratorio "A Nation of Others," as well as Robert Paterson's setting of six Whitman poems. (Nov. 15; Carnegie Hall)

ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S This ensemble starts its season at Carnegie Hall with an all-Mendelssohn program of the First Piano Concerto, with Benjamin Grosvenor, and the complete incidental music for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," with narration by David Hyde Pierce. (Nov. 17; Carnegie Hall)

‘DIFFICULT GRACE’ The cellist Seth Parker Woods takes on extra roles as a narrator and a movement artist in this multimedia exploration of the Great Migration made with the choreographer Roderick George and featuring an array of contemporary music by composers including, new for this iteration, Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes. (Nov. 19; 92nd Street Y)

‘THE HOURS’ An enviable trio of stars — Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato and Kelli O’Hara — star in Kevin Puts's lushly lyrical new adaptation of this novel about the impact of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" on different generations of women; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met's music director, conducts, making his first appearance on the company's podium nearly two months into its season. (Nov. 22-Dec. 15; Metropolitan Opera)

BOSTON EARLY MUSIC FESTIVAL This eminent institution continues its longstanding series at the Morgan Library and Museum with a double bill of late 17th-century pieces, one by Lully, the other by Charpentier. Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs are the veteran music directors; Robert Mealy plays concertmaster. (Dec. 3; Morgan Library)

KLAUS MAKELA The conductors Hannu Lintu, Stéphane Denève and Rafael Payare follow Jaap van Zweden on the New York Philharmonic's podium as the season begins. But it's safe to say that none of those guest appearances will be watched as closely as that of Klaus Makela, the 26-year-old wunderkind who was recently named the next chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. For his Philharmonic debut, he leads a program of Jimmy López, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. (Dec. 8-10, David Geffen Hall)

ISABEL LEONARD AND PABLO SÁINZ-VILLEGAS Presented in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera, this concert of Baroque music for voice (Leonard, an elegant mezzo) and guitar (Sáinz-Villegas) is one of Lincoln Center's only classical offerings as a presenter this fall, as it gives the spotlight to the New York Philharmonic and the reopening of the renovated David Geffen Hall. (Dec. 9; Alice Tully Hall)

‘MESSIAH’ For its annual run of Handel's holiday oratorio, the New York Philharmonic turns to an eminent specialist in early music, the conductor Masaaki Suzuki, who is joined by the superb Handel and Haydn Society Chorus and the soloists Sherezade Panthaki, Reginald Mobley, Leif Aruhn-Solén and Jonathon Adams. (Dec. 13-17, David Geffen Hall)

ITZHAK PERLMAN AND FRIENDS An evening led by one of our most famous violinists features as its guests the pianists Emanuel Ax and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, as well as the Juilliard String Quartet, joined by its new violist, Molly Carr, who was brought on earlier this year after the death of Roger Tapping. (Dec. 14; Carnegie Hall)

‘BASSLINE FABULOUS’ The Catalyst Quartet's thoughtful arrangement of Bach's "Goldberg" Variations is the spur for a live response from the performer and costume designer Machine Dazzle (best known for Taylor Mac's outrageous outfits) in this presentation from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's MetLiveArts series. The site at the museum is distinctive, and serene: John Vanderlyn's immersive early 19th-century panorama painting of the palace and gardens of Versailles. (Earlier, on Dec. 1, the quartet joins the mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges at the 92nd Street Y.) (Dec. 16-17, Metropolitan Museum of Art)

‘FEDORA’ "Medea" isn't the only diva vehicle being uncorked at the Met. New Year's Eve brings to the stage Giordano's verismo melodrama, a barnburner tale of love, politics and a poison-filled necklace set in late-19th-century Russia. The company hasn't done it in 25 years, when it was the occasion for Mirella Freni's final full-opera Met performances. Now Sonya Yoncheva gets the princess crown, opposite Piotr Beczala's Loris. The director is (again) David McVicar. Marco Armiliato conducts. (Opens Dec. 31, Metropolitan Opera)

An earlier version of this article misstated the name of the soprano in "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk." She is Svetlana Sozdateleva, not Katerina Ismailova. (Katerina Ismailova is the name of the character Sozdateleva will sing.)

How we handle corrections

Joshua Barone is the assistant classical music and dance editor on the Culture Desk and a contributing classical music critic. @joshbarone • Facebook

Zachary Woolfe became The Times's classical music critic in 2022, after serving as classical music editor since 2015. Prior to joining The Times, he was the opera critic of the New York Observer. @zwoolfe

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