Weekly Ear, Feb. 5 - Feb. 11

Atlanta concert picks

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
        —Wallace Stevens

THU/5 @ 8:00pm
ATLANTA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Donald Runnicles conducts an all-Richard Strauss program featuring soprano Christine Brewer and bass-baritone Eric Owens in operatic excerpts from “Elektra,” “Salome,” “Cappricio,” and “Die Frau ohne Schatten.” Repeats SAT/7. $21-$78. Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

FRI/6 @ 8:00pm
THAMYRIS with VEGA QUARTET & HALEH ABGHARI
Two of Atlanta's great chamber ensembles and guest vocalist Abghari perform “Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Peter Maxwell Davies, plus other “mad songs” by James Macmillan, Francis Dhomont, and Steve Everett. FREE. Schwartz Center, Emory University, 404-727-5050 arts.emory.edu

SAT/7 @ 7:30pm
ENSEMBLE SIRIUS
Stuart Gerber, percussion, and Michael Fowler, Keyboards. Music by Monroe Golden, Charles Mason, Dorothy Hindman, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. FREE. Kopleff Reciotal Hall, 404-413-5901 www.music.gsu.edu

SAT/7 @ 8:00pm
EIGHTH BLACKBIRD
"Singing in the Dead of Night," an aptly named work by David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, with staging by Susan Marshall, interlaces movement, theater and music. The program also features “Double Sextet” by Steve Reich. $30. Bailey Performance Hall, Kennesaw State University, 770-423-6650 www.kennesaw.edu/arts