National Symphony

It didn't take long after Beethoven's death for the composer to become sacred in the eyes -- and ears -- of music lovers. It also didn't take long for a few brave souls to suggest that maybe this titan, this god could have made a few little mistakes of judgment. Launching its fourth annual Beethoven Festival Thursday evening at the Kennedy Center, music director Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra jolted the audience with a demonstration of what happened when one brave soul -- Gustav Mahler -- dared to tamper with the holy text of the Bard of Bonn.

Baltimore-born billionaire and philanthropist David Rubenstein pledged $10 million Wednesday to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, with half of those funds earmarked for the National Symphony Orchestra. The five-year gift will include $5 million to the symphony in connection with the arrival of the group's new music director, Christoph Eschenbach; $2.5 million for a major annual cultural program at the institution; and $1.5 million for a program that brings the arts into classrooms around the U.S. The remaining $1 million will be used to support such major events as the center's annual honors gala and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

If the Baltimore Symphony's concerts Thursday, Friday and Saturday, featuring violinist Elmar Oliveira and guest conductor George Pehlivanian, do not completely sate listeners' hunger for classical music this week, Washington looks like a most attractive destination.The Washington Opera's recently opened production of Mozart's "The Abduction from the Seraglio" happens to be a dud -- and it's sold out anyway. But plenty of seats are available for the company's other current production -- Robert Ward's 1962 Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Crucible" -- and the word of mouth about it is that it's terrific.

What was to have been a light-hearted start to the National Symphony Orchestra's 2001-2002 season, its 30th year of residency at the Kennedy Center, turned into a very different occasion Wednesday. It wasn't just about patriotism and reflection, but hope and solidarity as well. At the center of the program was Bach, whose music represents one of the most profound arguments against evil. While the rest of the program involved many performers, this long, mesmerizing moment of Bach focused on one instrument, one musician who seemed to speak for millions.

Is it worth a 45-minute drive to Rock Creek Park to attend a free outdoor concert? The answer is a resounding yes if the outdoor location is Washington's natural acoustic wonder, the Carter Barron Amphitheater, and the performance is by the National Symphony Orchestra led by Anne Arundel County's own J. Ernest Green in his debut with the orchestra. Saturday marked a triumph for Green and a history-making musical event for Annapolis Chorale members and loyal Green fans who shared the evening.

Like everyone else, Leonard Slatkin won't forget where he was on Sept. 11. He heard the news in a London taxicab, on his way to the BBC's studios and more preparations for his history-making appearance as the first American to conduct the "Last Night of the Proms." That's the quintessentially British event that closes the annual summer "Promenade Concerts" and is broadcast around the globe. "It was a very strange feeling being there when everything happened," says the Los Angeles-born Slatkin, one of this country's most accomplished conductors, who serves as music director of both the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Brass players may not always get the last word, but when there's something monumental to say, they're often the ones chosen to say it. Think of the ebullience with which the baroque trumpets announce the coming of the holy spirit in Bach's "Magnificat." Or the horn, trumpet and trombone fanfares that intone the fateful motif that opens Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony. And how about the "Tuba mirum" of Verdi's Requiem, in which blazing trumpets (perhaps antiphonally placed around the concert hall)

George Mallette Ferris Jr., whose career in the investment business spanned nearly six decades and who was chairman of the board of the investment firm of Ferris, Baker Watts Inc., died of a heart attack Monday at the company's Washington office. He was 81. In 1950, Mr. Ferris joined the Washington-based investment firm of Ferris & Co. that was established by his father in 1932; it became one of the nation's capital's oldest and largest investment banking firms. He spent most of his career working in the firm's Washington office at 1700 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, where he had been CEO until stepping down in 1997, family members said.

If it's summertime, the music must be Mozart.Ever since 1966, when New York's Lincoln Center started its Mostly Mozart Festival, the composer's works have become a summer industry, as one orchestra after another has copied the formula.And for good reason: no other composer's music works as well in these languid months.The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra learned that in 1992 when -- because of recording commitments -- it programmed almost nothing except Rachmaninov and Copland. One look at the disastrous box-office receipts and the cry of "Never again!"

Sundays at Three Concert series features two pi anists and a violinist from the Baltimore Symphony Orches tra and the National Symphony Orchestra's cellist. pg ?G