Sala: The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda

David Danzmayr delivers epic storytelling in Sibelius' First Symphony, while soprano Christine Goerke heightens the drama with powerful Barber and Menotti heroines.

Virtuoso violin fireworks were on brilliant display in Noah Bendix-Balgley's own Klezmer Concerto, while the Baltimore Symphony and conductor Fabien Gabel presented an impassioned, memorably probing Mahler Five.

It’s Richard Wagner’s bicentennial year, and everyone is getting in on the act. 22 different productions, by one count, of the complete Ring cycle will be seen worldwide, not to mention countless other celebratory evenings put on by sundry ensembles.