Focus on Classical Music

rg.).   - P.D.
Imani Winds. These virtuosic and stylish musicians come here so often they really should just settle down and become this city's woodwind quintet in residence. But for now we'll settle for a single concert, Nov. 6, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (215-569-8080 or www.pcmsconcerts.org.)

   - P.D.

Piffaro and Choral Arts Society. The ensembles will collaborate Nov. 13-15 on Portuguese Advent Vespers - a journey back to 16th-century Lisbon. In this great period of music, even lesser-known composers such as Rebelo, Pinheiro, and Estevao de Brito represent the apex of Renaissance polyphony and its inextricable fusion of spirituality and sensuality. (www.piffaro.org)    - D.P.S.

Brahms, Brahms. And then more Brahms. What could be bad? On Nov. 14 Astral Artists spends the whole day with the composer (plus a little Schoenberg and Clara Schumann) in three concerts (at 1, 4 and 8 p.m.) that include the String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major (Op. 18), the Piano Quintet in F minor (Op. 34) and other works. (215-735-6999, www.astralartists.org.)

   - P.D.

Riccardo Muti. Some conductors know what they're good at, and stick with it. Muti is one of them. In recent years a stranger to Philadelphia, he is slated to appear with the New York Philharmonic Nov. 20 in Verizon Hall in the first of this season's Kimmel Center visiting-orchestra series. The program: pure Muti - movements from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Elgar's In the South, and Liszt's Les Preludes. (215-893-1999, www.kimmelcenter.org.)

   - P.D.

Miriam Fried. This violinist seems incapable of encountering a phrase without turning it magically golden and meaningful. She, with the other members of the Mendelssohn Quartet, play Bartok, Beethoven and, yes, Mendelssohn (the Quartet in A minor, Op. 13) Dec. 2 in a Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert at the Perelman Theater. (215-569-8080 or www.pcmsconcerts.org.)

   - P.D.
Kim Kashkashian. Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presents the star violist Dec. 6 in an all-Armenian recital that would be intriguing even if she hadn't just released an amazing Armenian-dominated disc titled Neharót. As on the disc, the Philadelphia program features Tigran Mansurian (also the recital's pianist) in performances of his own works as well as by the Armenian cult figure Komitas, a priest/composer who collected thousands of folk songs. (215-569-8080 or www.pcmsconcerts.org.)
   - D.P.S.