• Maestro Robert Moody and members of the Portland Symphony Orchestra return to Merrill Auditorium for two late-January concerts. At 7:30 p.m. Jan. 25, the orchestra and guest pianist Andrew von Oeyen present “From Russia with Love,” featuring Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.
But the main event of the evening is the premiere of a new piece by Maine composer Elliott Schwartz, “Diamond Jubilee.” The orchestra commissioned Schwartz to write the piece in honor of his 75th birthday.
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Schwartz writes, “It seemed appropriate to compose the work as a memoir and to give it a title celebrating the number 75. It’s not exactly an autobiography, more like a retrospective look backwards at 75 years of human history in which my own life mingles with the larger panorama.”
At 2:30 p.m. Jan. 30, the PSO presents the Bach masterwork “Passion According to St. John.” It’s one of the most important works of the Baroque era, Moody said. It will feature vocalists Kenda Colton, Pamela Dellal, John Aler, Daniel Stein, Laurence Albert and Troy Cook, along with the Masterworks Chorus of the Choral Art Society.
Tickets for both concerts are available through PortTix at 842-0800 or www.porttix.com. Prices range from $20 to $70 for the Jan. 25 concert, and from $17 to $56 for the Jan. 30 concert. For details and related programming, visit www.portlandsymphony.org.
• In a similar programming vein, the Portland String Quartet presents the Schubert Quartet in D Minor, “Death and the Maiden,” and the Shostakovich Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110, at 2 p.m. Feb. 6 at Woodfords Congregational Church, 202 Woodfords St., Portland.
Also, the Portland String Quartet travels to Fryeburg for a concert at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at the Leura Hill Eastman Performing Arts Center at Fryeburg Academy. The concert was originally scheduled for Friday, but the date has been changed.
For details on both, visit www.larksociety.org.
• Keeping the Baroque theme, the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Lehmann of the University of Southern Maine School of Music performs at 8 p.m. Feb. 12 at Corthell Concert Hall, USM-Gorham.
The program features Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 for two violas, Vivaldi’s concerto for four violins and other works by Vivaldi and Corelli. The concert will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings.
Tickets cost $6 and can be purchased through the USM box office at 780-5555.
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