Quintet

Pro Musica Rara, noted for its commitment to historically authentic instruments, devotes most of its attention to the 17th and 18th centuries. This weekend, the focus will spread to the 19th with performances of Schumann's rapturous Piano Quintet and some pieces by Chopin using a newly built re-creation of a fortepiano much like the one Schumann and wife Clara owned. Pianist Edmund Battersby will be the featured artist. He will be joined in the Schumann work by Pro Musica regulars Greg Mulligan and Ivan Stefanovic (violins)

Music director Jason Love will not be wielding his baton when the Columbia Orchestra gives a free chamber concert on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m., at Christ Episcopal Church, in Columbia. The nine orchestra members performing in this concert have picked the repertory on their own and also are making their own interpretive decisions about how to play it. Lest you think there has been a palace revolt, Love is all for it. "There are so many great players in the orchestra and sometimes the individuals are lost in the 90-piece orchestra, so it's great to hear them" in smaller ensembles, Love says.

Franz Schubert never heard his Quintet in C; he composed it in September of 1828. On November 19, he died.He would have been pleased by last night's performance in Meyerhoff Hall on the next-to-last program of the Baltimore Symphony's Summer MusicFest.The composer surely understood how the difficulties -- both technical and musical -- of the Quintet. There are moments when the five instruments -- two violins, a viola and two cellos -- must sound like 100. And there is not a single moment in this taxing, 40-minute work in which each player, whether assigned to sustained or agitated melodic lines, can afford to neglect what his partners are doing.

Appropriately rising from punk graves in late October, Baltimore quintet Sick Weapons -- which disbanded after a Golden West Café performance in late December 2010 -- has reunited, and will finally release its debut album, "Birthday Gift," early next month. The album will come out as a joint release from two Baltimore labels, Reptilian Records and the formerly defunct McCarthyism Records (run by Josh Sisk , a frequent photographer for The Baltimore Sun). The maroon-vinyl record will first be available at Day 1 of Unregistered Nurse Booking's U+Nfest at Metro Gallery on Nov. 9, which Sick Weapons will headline.

Harry Steyert, a big-band clarinetist who later led his own quintet, died of cancer Friday at his Eldersburg home. He was 83. Born in Emmaus, Pa., he moved with his family to Baltimore's Hamilton section in 1935. He was a 1940 City College graduate and earned a business degree from the University of Baltimore. He met his wife of 62 years, the former Dorothy Reamy, when he was playing in the orchestra pit of the old State Theater on East Monument Street. She worked at a nearby record store.

The music season heated up some more over the weekend, with the help of interesting, effectively delivered repertoire. After an early-September, nonsubscription event featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Shriver Hall Concert Series opened its annual classical series Sunday evening at the Johns Hopkins University with the superb Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. The program provided an immersion course in French music for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn.

A hotshot quintet called Classical Jam — Jennifer Choi, violin; Cyrus Beroukhim, viola; Wendy Law, cello; Marco Granados, flute; Justin Hines, percussion — was formed recently "to reach out to diverse audiences" and promote classical music "to people who feel that they cannot relate to it, or for one reason or another, are not exposed to it." One way Classical Jam fulfills that mission is through collaborative projects and the creation of new music. The ensemble is heading to Maryland for a residency next week at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda and a side trip to Baltimore that promises interesting sounds for veteran and novice classical music listeners alike.

On Saturday, the Performing Arts Association of Linthicum will present the next concert in its 1994-1995 season. The Warsaw Wind Quintet with Michiko Otaki, pianist, will perform on the stage of the new North County High School auditorium at 8 p.m.The quintet was formed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1973 by major soloists from the National Philharmonic and Radio Orchestras. They have played in the former Soviet Union and throughout Europe. The quintet regularly records for the Polish RTV and West Berlin Radio.

Their luck was messed up for so long that the guys of Blue October decided to call their latest album Foiled. "Every time we took a step, something pushed us two steps back," says Justin Furstenfeld, the modern-rock band's spiky-haired focal point and lead singer. "We might as well just say it: We're foiled." After a decade of personal and artistic ups and downs, after being signed, dropped, then re-signed to Universal Records, Blue October has finally arrived, so to speak. Unexpectedly, Foiled has become the Houston quintet's biggest album.

Remember how it was back in the early '90s, when it seemed like every new rock band on MTV wanted only to brood angrily about the unfairness of life? Did you ever find yourself wanting to yell, "Oh, lighten up?" when some glowering grunge star whined to Kurt Loder about the pressures of rock stardom? If so, then you're probably a member of the BNL generation -- even if you didn't know it at the time. BNL, of course, is Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian quintet whose 1992 debut, "Gordon," was ignored by MTV and pretty much everybody else in this country.

The passing of time is impossible to ignore, but Motion City Soundtrack's Justin Pierre tried his hardest for more than a decade. "I spent a good, long chunk of my life - 15 years, I'd say - not really living in the moment but rather avoiding the moment," Pierre said. A couple of years ago, the lead singer, now 36, looked at his family and suddenly knew he had to change his perspective. "My brother has a kid. Some of my siblings are married. My parents are grandparents," he said.

The most distinctive piece of the National, an indie-rock quintet from Brooklyn, N.Y.-via-Cincinnati, is lead singer Matt Berninger's slurred baritone. It's a smooth, low purr that, when combined with the band's circular guitars and Bryan Devendorf's expert drumming, lulls listeners into a trance. This combination has led to great success, including 2010's High Violet, a gold record that debuted No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and won Q magazine's best album of the year. Tuesday, the National will be at Merriweather Post Pavilion . Bassist Scott Devendorf took time from the band's European festival run to talk about High Violet's success, tour-mates Wye Oak and the group's support of President Obama.

A hotshot quintet called Classical Jam — Jennifer Choi, violin; Cyrus Beroukhim, viola; Wendy Law, cello; Marco Granados, flute; Justin Hines, percussion — was formed recently "to reach out to diverse audiences" and promote classical music "to people who feel that they cannot relate to it, or for one reason or another, are not exposed to it." One way Classical Jam fulfills that mission is through collaborative projects and the creation of new music. The ensemble is heading to Maryland for a residency next week at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda and a side trip to Baltimore that promises interesting sounds for veteran and novice classical music listeners alike.

Such worldwide hysteria among teen girls hadn't been seen since the Beatles. In the late 1980s and early '90s, some 25 years after the Fab Four sparked mania, New Kids on the Block became a sweeping sensation. The Boston quintet of Donnie Wahlberg, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight, Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood dominated the Top 10 with sprightly pop hits that streamlined elements of classic Philly soul and lite hip-hop. Surely you remember them: "Please Don't Go Girl," "Step By Step," "You Got It (The Right Stuff)"

While many folks will be making last-minute checks on stashes of beer and munchies Sunday, others will be spending the pre-Super Bowl hours reveling in baroque music. "SuperBach Sunday" is a long-running annual presentation by Pro Musica Rara, Baltimore's intrepid early-music organization. This year's concert features the return of two fine guests, soprano Ann Monoyios and trumpeter John Thiessen. The concert, which promises music by Bach, Handel and Purcell, will be at 3:30 p.m. at Towson University's Center for the Arts, Osler and Cross Campus drives.

Essex Coastal zoning district is topic A Lower Back River Neck community meeting will be held tonight to discuss a new coastal zoning district in the area. The 7 p.m. forum at Chesapeake High School, 1801 Turkey Point Road, Essex, will offer information about a planning process, called a charrette, being organized to develop a new zoning code for the waterfront neighborhoods. The charrette will be held Sept. 11 through Sept. 15. The first meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 13. Information: 410-887-3480, or www.baltimorecountymd.

Pete Mosely is loving the California sun right now. "Beautiful weather, man; clear skies. It's great," he says. "I was out jet skiing earlier, and my face is sunburned." The Yellowcard bassist, keyboardist and songwriter is calling from San Diego, where he's taking a short break from his bandmates before a performance later that evening. Lately, he's had few moments away from the studio and the stage. The punk-inspired pop quintet has been on the grind, heavily promoting its new album, the gold-selling Lights and Sounds, the follow-up to its platinum 2003 major-label debut, Ocean Avenue.

Painters provide us with landscapes and seascapes. Leave it to five of the world's finest musicians to throw in a windscape as well. Windscape, which performs Saturday evening in Columbia under the aegis of Howard County's Candlelight Concert Society, is one of the most eminent woodwind quintets, a combination of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn. Created in 1994 by five of New York City's best, the quintet has spent the past decade charming and edifying audiences with thematic programs such as "Beethoven Comes to Vienna," "East Meets West: The Music of Japan and the Impressionists" and "The Fabulous Fifties."

What: 40th birthday party for Oakland Mills, the second-oldest village in Columbia. When: Friday through Sunday. Where: The Other Barn, Oakland Mills Village Center, 5851 Robert Oliver Place. Highlights: Friday - Free 1968 movie night, 8 p.m., The Graduate; Saturday - OM Fest from noon to 3 p.m. in the courtyard with bands and free food/drinks. Family disco night from 7:30 to 10:30 . Tickets are $5 for adults in advance and $8 at the door. Tickets for children 6 to 12 are less, and kids 5 and younger are free; Sunday - Farmers' Market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A "Jazz in the Mills" music series will feature the Lavenia Nesmith Quintet from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

This year, Danity Kane, the all-female quintet that came together in MTV's Making the Band 3, released its second album, Welcome to the Dollhouse, which made its debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. As a result of Making the Band 4, P. Diddy gave singer Donnie Klang a solo recording contract and formed the all-male R&B/pop quintet Day 26. All three acts perform at Pier 6 Pavilion tomorrow for Making the Band 4 -- The Tour. The show starts at 7 p.m. The venue is at President Street and Eastern Avenue.