Cirque de la Symphonie in a 2012 performance with the Philadelphia Orchestra (Photo: Zach Mahone)

This week’s featured concerts:

Jul. 8 — Each year, the Seattle Chamber Music Society commissions a new work for performance at their annual summer festival. North Carolina-based composer Lawrence Dillon is the featured composer this year. Hear his new septet Sanctuary (written for French horn, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, and piano) alongside works by Mozart and Beethoven.

Jul. 11 — Work downtown? Stroll over to the Sherman Clay Seattle piano showroom for an epic (and free) lunchtime recital. New York-based pianist David Brooks performs Liszt’s massive Sonata in B Minor. One of the composer’s greatest works, this devilishly difficult piece always provides plenty of food for thought.

Jul. 12 — Pianists and composers Robert and Clara Schumann were one of the 19th century’s greatest husband-and-wife musical duos. The Seattle Chamber Music Society presents their works side by side in a single evening. First, hear Robert’s Romances, performed by violinist Nurit Bar-Josef and pianist Anton Nel. Then, after intermission, Bar-Josef and Nel return for Clara’s Romances.

Jul. 12 – 13 — Head east to Leavenworth for two programs of Russian music at the idyllic Icicle Creek International Chamber Music Festival. This weekend’s concerts focus on works by Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev, two pupils of Tchaikovsky. Chamber music favorites by Schubert, Bartók, Brahms, and Mozart round out the weekend.

Jul. 12 – 13 — The acrobats of Cirque de la Symphonie take over Benaroya Hall for three performances with the Seattle Symphony. Watch as gymnasts tumble across the stage, aerial artists twirl overhead, and contortionists twist themselves into human pretzels — all to beloved classical works performed by the symphony.

Jul. 13 — Renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson visits our neighbors up north at the Bellingham Festival of Music. Ohlsson performs Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the festival orchestra. Also on the program is Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Winds in E-flat Major.