World-class performances from Washington fill WETA Classical this week

You can be front row and center at the NSO Season Opening Gala Concert from the comfort of your own home or office this Wednesday at 11AM ET! We are airing the exciting program kicking off the new season for the National Symphony Orchestra, fresh from their performance over the weekend. We hear a dazzling program under the baton of Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, with star pianist Daniil Trifonov, and music by Smetana, Rachmaninoff, and Kennedy Center's Composer-in-Residence, Carlos Simon. Read more about Nicole Lacriox's anticipation of this exciting event here!

Front Row Washington presents the Chiarina Chamber Players, presenting a dynamic program of chamber music, including Krystof Penderecki, Germaine Tailleferre, and Franz Schubert. Founded in 2015 by pianist Efi Hackmey and cellist Carrie Bean Stute, Chiarina brings distinctive chamber music performances and innovative programming to an intimate neighborhood setting in Capitol Hill, DC. Join us for an evening of world-class chamber music from our own backyard, this Monday night at 9PM ET.

Your Saturday evenings will once again be filled with the best of chamber music with the return of Center Stage from Wolf Trap! Join us Saturday evening at 9PM ET for intimate chamber music recitals by world-class artists recorded at The Barns at Wolf Trap. We kick off the season with a performance by Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, showcasing music by Spanish composers. We hear a piano quartet by Joaquin Turina, and a piano trio by Gaspar Cassadó.

From the Top features a local piano prodigy who will wow you with his mature interpretations of Chopin. At the young age of 13, one of Matthew’s proudest moments so far was playing in an all-Chopin recital at the Polish Embassy. When he’s not concentrating on piano, Matthew enjoys karate and tennis. Meet Matthew on Sunday at 6PM ET!

This week on Choral Showcase, John Eliot Gardiner conducts his second recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, with the Monteverdi Choir and the Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra. Though this may be a work familiar to many, this performance is truly profound and captures Beethoven's genius and fury like never before. Be sure to tune in this Sunday at 9PM ET.

Opera Matinee kicks off October on Saturday at 1PM ET with Franz Lehár's lighthearted The Merry Widow, a 1905 operetta about a rich widow and her countrymen’s attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband.  A production of China's National Centre for the Performing Arts with Song Yuanming in the title role.